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I read the first Harry Potter
book when I was eleven. I got so hooked to it that within the next few years I
had finished the first four books of the series and was desperate for the next
book. The fourth book had ended on such a note that I just had to get my hands
on the next one to know what happened next. I was so crazy about it that I used
to gather all my friends and we used to enact various scenes from Harry Potter.
The scenes from the first book when Harry, Ron and Hermione go to save the Philosopher’s
stone were our favourite. Raincoats functioned as our robes. ‘Dandiyas’ used to
be our magic wands. I had even painstakingly compiled a list of all the magic
spells and what they did, from all the Harry Potter books for easy reference.
Oh, those were the days!
I started reading the newspaper because of
Harry Potter, if only to scan the global news section for the release date of
the next book, and also for some spoilers! By this time, the Harry Potter
movies had started coming out. The release of the first movie was just as
exciting as reading the books. They say that a book should never be judged by
its movie and this goes for Harry Potter too. However, I have to give it to the
movie makers as they did a spectacular job in staying true to the book. It was
a delight to see that the casting matched my imagination to quite an extent.
I used to re - read the books
every summer during the holidays. Strangely enough, I found something new to
like about them with every reading. Initially, what attracted me to the books
was the novelty of the concept – that there was a magical world hidden in plain
sight of our normal ‘Muggle’ world. A world where there was a school which
taught Magic, where there were creatures like unicorns and centaurs and where
owls delivered post! I have always been a fan of fantasy and adventure. Harry
Potter has it all – murder, mystery, adventure, magic, romance! As I grew
older, I realised that there was so much more to the books than all that. Here
are the main reasons why I encourage anyone who would listen, to read Harry
Potter:
1) The books are
extremely well written, especially the way the plot unravels at just the right
pace and how everything that seems so mysterious at first fits together so
neatly in the end. J K Rowling is a genius.
2) The message given by
the books is very powerful - that good ultimately triumphs over evil, love wins
out over hatred and fear. Our life is a series of choices we make between what
is easy and what is right. These choices define the kind of people we are. Friendship,
family, loyalty are more important than wielding power and are even worth dying
for.
3) The best thing about
Harry Potter is that its characters are very believable. The protagonist, Harry,
is someone to whom we can all relate. He is portrayed as a boy who has fame
thrust upon him from a very young age. Fame, of which he wants no part. He
would rather just be a normal boy. As normal as a boy wizard can be. At least
then, his parents would still be alive. My heart went out to the young Harry
who had to live with his Aunt and Uncle until he found his true home at
Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I’m sure that anyone who has read
the books will agree that many characters in the books remind us of real people
in our life. Like Harry, we have all felt like a misfit at some point in life.
We have had that one evil teacher who used to punish us just to spite us
(Umbridge), the good teachers who pushed us to achieve our full potential
(Professor McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore), that bully in school who took
sadistic pleasure in our miseries (Malfoy) and friends who were more like
family, who stuck by us through thick and thin and made us feel like we
belonged (The Weasley’s, Sirius and Hermione).
4) On the outside,
Harry Potter may seem to be a fantasy series. However, if we look closely, many
real world comparisons can be drawn from it. Here is one interesting
comparison: In the books, Voldemort and his followers advocate that the Wizarding
race should have only ‘purebloods’, people whose parents are also wizards. They
look down on mudbloods and half - bloods, who have Muggle blood in their veins.
There is mass killing of such people in the name of purifying the Wizarding
race. This is uncannily similar to the genocide of Jews in Nazi Germany under
the reign of Hitler, in favour of the blond and blue eyed Aryans.
I feel like I have literally
grown up with Harry Potter. Harry was eleven in the first book, just like me
when I started reading it. The books have taught me so much. I wouldn’t be
exaggerating if I say that they have shaped the person I am today. I connected
with them on so many different levels that when the series ended, I was lost. I
even cried because, now there would be no more Harry Potter! It was time to bid
the final adieu. After a while I found other books to read, but none of them
will ever take the same place in my heart as Harry Potter. I don’t think I’ll
ever grow out of my ‘Potter mania’!
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