Monday, November 09, 2009

Last week, after the gremlins in my pc’s hard disk had sobered and the machine began purring instead of sounding like an engine with a bad cough, I chanced upon this magical trailer of A Christmas Carol.
Some of the pics have a quaint English card feel, very 60’s. Magical.
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/450714/A-Christmas-Carol-Walt-Disney-/trailers

And it brought back memories of another time, of a thick tome of Dickens' best stories once upon a time issued from the Old State library, the one in the old city, near the imposing Mandvi gate. It may have been an early edition, but the book was leather bound, had intricate drawings and delicate butterpaper covering the page with the sketch. I kept the book out for more than I should, a few years perhaps, and then finally paid all fines and returned it. Perhaps I shouldn’t have, it must have found its way to a dump in some spring cleaning session.
And I keep thinking about how we always carry bits of our past with us, and how this defines- almost always- future reactions, no matter what.

8 comments:

PQ said...

Buterpaper covering...i rembr them too.
Yes going through old stuff is such a satisfying feeling right, especially hand written notes - reminds you of that time :-)

Billy said...

So true....

AmitL said...

I remember the Mandvi library-in fact,I think it's still there,and if I do dare to venture there,a la Munnabhai,there might be a ghost or two roaming around?:)
---
Re. returning the book-haha-you might have received a tidy sum for it now as a rare book?:)Waise,one of my relatives in Karelibaug once had a full set of all these classics-you know,with that yellow and gold binding. And, the pages inside would break if we folded them.:)Wish I'd taken them all at that time-all would've been rarities.

Anonymous said...

I just want to thank you for the prayers.

austere said...

Pq- so true.Some books and letters are like that, are they not?


abbagirl- thanks. :)

Amitl- Is it? Good luck with the resident ghost/s. I wish I'd kept the book, I wish I'd kept the book, I wish...
so where are those classics now?


mago- often think of you. tc, boss.

quin browne said...

i have an ancient copy of anne bronte's two books...

leather bound, soft delicate paper, sheer perfection.

it, too, was a library book. i announced i'd lost it, and paid the $8.95 fee.

it was worth the money... it, too, would have been dumped, no one had ever checked it out aside from me.

austere said...

quin- GooD! I wish I had, too.

AmitL said...

Gone with the wind,nee,the book-worms/termites..sighh!!Their house was closed for years..