It is always Harry Potter. The book I turn to for comfort. I read all day and I read all night but when I’m depressed and desperately need company, the book that has been always there for me is Harry Potter. I don’t know what it is about this series. Maybe it is the fact that I grew up with these books as my best friends or the simple joy of the story that draws me. But whenever I need a best friend….whenever I need to stop thinking about the only person I can never forget…I don’t want to forget… (long story, maybe some other time!) I turn to HP.

Harry Potter reminds me that no matter how bad the situation, there is a magical solution for it. I may have to toil for days, months or years (like they did with the Polyjuice Potion) but eventually patience always pays off. And of course, there are bad guys….wasn’t Voldy one? But you don’t have to stoop down to their level to beat them. They will lose coz of their own wrong ways (his own spell killed him….how I wish certain people in my life would be awarded with a similar fate!)  It is not always sunshine and roses in HPverse….good people get hurt, bad people seem to triumph, but in the end…it’s not about what battles you fought but rather, WHO had your back while you were fighting. Winning and losing are secondary things if you recognize that the one major…the ONLY driving force in this world is LOVE. All other emotions stem from it. Hate, greed, jealousy….name one and you can trace its beginning to ‘LOVE’.

HP is not just a book, it is an experience. While reading these books you discover friends, love, heartbreak, rejection, the joy of winning, the misery of losing and of course, Magic! Each of these things is true and relevant, yes, even magic is. You may disregard it and be skeptical. You may call HP a children’s book….but c’mon….weren’t you a child once? And isn’t a child’s world just as complicated, as thrilling, as real as yours? Fantasy is not about what is, but rather about what could be and I believe that is far more important than the mundane things of our mundane muggle lives. You call HP far-fetched….I say, what is far-fetched is that a guy can murder another guy, a mother can abandon her child, little children can get raped – and yes all these far-fetched stories are true…you see them in the news every day. So why can’t you believe that there may be a little magic still left in the world…waiting to be discovered. A world where mothers give up their lives for their children, a world where friendship and love triumph and hate loses in the end.

HP is not just for kids. It is a book that upholds and promises to help you keep faith in that most flighty and hard to grasp human emotion – HOPE. Humans may have learnt to deal with tragedy but what keeps them alive, makes them human is HOPE and these books have managed to capture its essence teaching anyone who cares to listen the most valuable lesson of their lives. I say, add HP to the curriculum, make it compulsory reading material…let kids grow up on it and then watch as this book weaves its magic into the world. I cannot believe that anyone who grows up with this book as a friend will ever want to give up on their inner goodness. Transform the world…..believe in Magic….and of course, Harry Potter!

Bye…off to catch a dose of HP….my magical cure for everything mundane!