Reading to my grandfather

I know I have not written for long but I was confused about which topic to write about. So decided to write about a person who I miss every day. I wish he was still with me.

The most important pillar of strength during my growing up years was my grandfather – Pappaja.

Pappaja was the most patient and loving man I have ever seen or met. He had a soft spot for me as I was his only granddaughter. I spent so much time of my childhood with him. He is the one who gave me my love of reading and writing.

My most precious memories with him are reading to him. He couldn’t see properly, but he loved to help me with my studies. Be it English or Marathi or rather any other subject.

In the afternoons after coming back from school, I remember sitting with him reading the lessons taught for the day. He used to teach me proper pronunciations of the words I didn’t know.  Sometimes some of my lessons reminded him of some or the other incidents in his life. He then proceeded to tell me those stories. He had a knack of telling the story in such a way that you get engrossed. He made me understand lessons I found hard to understand. We even read Wren and Martin as if it was a novel for us.

My love for reading kept on rising. I read newspapers to him. There was a magazine called “Sportstar” that we used to get every week. I even used to read that to him as he was crazy about cricket. I wrote letters for him, read out the letters written to him. How else would I have understood how important he was to all those who knew him. He taught me the knack of letter writing. He thought so much before writing anything. He always told me – “Think well before you write. Once you write something its permanent. Make sure you don’t hurt anyone with your words.”

I would have read my language textbooks to him at least 10 times in the whole year. Not because I wanted to study but because I loved reading to him.

Today he’s not with me, but whenever I read any book I am always thankful to him for introducing me to my love of reading.