I have been extremely busy. Honestly. With all those annual
papers to be marked, the individual progress report cards to be made ready and
all the other paraphernalia, so much a part of a teacher’s life. Despite all the distractions, I have tried to
take it into my stride, knowing all along that the hectic life is steadily
coming to an end. My excitement knew no bounds therefore, when a few days back,
I found myself left with the last lot of the papers and it was time for some year-end catching up reading. This year, I could not make much time for
reading as after a gap of eight years, I was to teach Standard-X again. For
reasons difficult to decipher, I preferred to keep the three books I had
borrowed from the library in March throughout with me. A grammar book along with two guide books. I do not know why I did that, but the feeling of having those books in
my possession all year long, albeit a bit selfishly, was very comforting. As I believed the students would never catch me lacking or open-mouthed due to ignorance!
When the time was ripe, I decided to return the books. As I was coming out of
the library, I asked Ms.Kezang, if I could have a novel or something, ‘just to
pass the time’. She not only readily obliged, but also helped me by choosing
one of Nicholas Sparks’.
Now I have to tell you this, Reader, that in the crevice of
my mind, I have always secretly cherished the dream of being a writer (Now hold
on. I don’t like the sneer on you face). Not an everyday kind of writer, but a
writer who feels as ‘the chosen one’ like the great Brit poet John Milton. I
will make a huge impact on the teeming millions, as a writer. And an enviable
difference. The world will be a better place for my writings. I will never shy
away from my responsibility of bringing a glimmer of hope to the hopeless.
There will be something for everyone, especially for those people, who spend
the greater part of their lives, desperately trying to make ends meet.
When one has dreams like mine, one simply cannot go gaga
over the works of any other authors. Seriously. So I try my best not to gloat
much about the people who make a living by selling their wares in the form of
words. Yes, there are writers like Irving Wallace, who, through his masterpiece, Prize, regally changed my outlook on ladies making a living, under compulsion,
by selling their bodies. I have even been very possessive of the novels of
Harold Robins or Sidney Sheldon. ‘The Other Side of Midnight’ by the last named
author, cast a hypnotic spell on me during my student's life and as a result, I could not choose anyone else but him at
that time as My Favourite Author when I had to write an essay on the same topic in
B.A. Part-II examination!
Now coming back to Nicholas Sparks, the first book I read by
him was ‘The Notebook’. This was subsequently made into a hit movie. The
unbelievable love of a man for his Alzheimer-stricken at the fag end of her
life wife, in an old-age home, simply mesmerized me and I could not get the
novel out of my system for long. The next book, Message in a Bottle’, was
equally enthralling, if not better. I felt like copying each of those
unimaginable letters into my diary, for their simplicity and charm. I ended up
with “A Walk to Remember’.
So when Ms. Kezang, our librarian, handed me ‘Safe Haven’,
remarking in the process,” You’ll like it, Sir’, I knew better not to think
twice. Normally, once I have a book in my possession, I like to finish it at a
go. But for the reasons already mentioned at the start, I had to resist the
temptation of exploring the novel at the earliest opportunity, as there were some pressing matters. Though I
finished reading the first hundred page or so within a day or two. The novel
initially seemed like one of those novels, you now, but not exactly the unputdownable
type.
Yesterday, after I was done with the paper-checking finally,
I could rededicate myself to flipping through Sparks again with all sincerity……
Katie by then was
chastised by Jo, her recent next-door-neighbour, about her relationship with Alex, the hero with an unshakable
humanity. After the chastisement, what did not seem all that bizarre at that time. she noticed that Jo had left her wine in the bar, untouched!
I decided to switch off the light of my room, having
finished some 270-275 pages of the 365 page book by then. On waking up, I
decided to finish up the unfinished work first before getting back to Safe
Haven with a vengeance.
By the time Kevin, Katie’s monster of a husband, was on the look out
for her and nearly caught her fumbling, trying to sneak out of her dingy hotel
in Philadelphia. And I was scurrying through the pages, worrying about
Katie’s safety from the maniac. At around a quarter to twelve, the voice in my
head was asking me to leave the book aside for a while as I had to prepare
lunch ( My dearest wife like Katie gave me the slip to go down to Kolkata to
attend a series of weddings with my daughters. Forgive My Dearest, Reader, this is the Season of Love and Wedding after all).
It did
not take long for Kevin, after a chance encounter with the daughter of the deceased
next door neighbour and a few phone calls later, to locate the whereabouts of his run-away wife. She was
hiding in a little-known town at Southport, North Carolina. Suspended from the
police for two weeks for coming to office boozed (He had been doing nothing but
drinking vodka heavily since she left her), he blamed her for all his hard times. He decided
then to give his errant and now in his eye, sluttish wife, the chase to bring her home! He
was hell bent on revenge and destruction.
Katie, by then, had
apologized to Alex for her inexplicably rude behaviour of the previous night
and blissfully spent the day with him and his children at the carnival,
oblivious of the evil designs lurking nearby in the form of her psychopath
husband. They were back to his place as Alex left Katie in charge of the
children and wobbly in the knees lusting for his feel. Some hours later as the
children were tucked in, she started relaxing on a couch near the television,
after a shower, dressed in Alex’s jeans and T-shirt. Winking to keep the sleep
at bay from her eyelids, due to the sheer fatigue of the day, she was not sure
if Jo appeared really or in a dream to caution her about the impending danger. It was at
this precise moment that Kevin downstairs was setting the store and the house on fire.
There was not much left afterwards but the blazing debris and ashes!
Katie’s heroics at
saving the children were natural, as was the blood-curdling death of Kevin. As
she threaded her weary steps to the cottage for the last time, she was surprised to find
the house opposite, where Jo lived, in shambles. She had a premonition of the
alter ego, the dream in Alex’s house as the realization dawned on her the Jo, her benefactor, was none other than Alex’s long-lost former wife, Carly Jo! And she started gasping
through the letter Jo had left in her deathbed for the woman her hubby was fated to fall in love with!
At first, I did not want Alex to retrieve the letter from
the fire-proof safe in the debris, but as the words and the appeal for love for all, started
sinking in, I could feel tears welling up in my eyes like it happened to Katie
at the end.
Another of those glorious letters, the art of which Sparks
seems effortlessly to have mastered. His telling contribution to the thirsty reading public
and the World of Literature as well. I do not now why the simple truth has
taken so long for me to realize. The simple truth that writers like Nicholas
Sparks are not born every other decade. Other than God’s blessings, it takes a
whole Mountain of Merits and all to be able to write like the way Nicholas
Sparks does it.
