My First Date Poem by Anurag Talukdar

Growing up in the picturesque town of Shillong in the early 1980s, life for me was nothing short of being a paradise. Being the only child of my parents, they showered me all their love and affection.
From my early childhood, I had a craving for books and I would glance through the pages of any newspaper, comic or a book, understanding a few and pretending the most. Not an ordinary feat for any five years old kid, I still believe.
Now my parents were not rich, nor were they poor either. They granted all my wishes till that very evening when we visited the splendorous villa atop a hillock, whose name I have long forgotten. Our host lived in a joint family, with many members, which was quite a surprise to me, as I always thought a family comprises of three.
The villa had four floors with plenty of balconies and innumerable rooms. One of the family members proudly informed my father that it was in the year 1927 that the construction was completed for the villa was completed. "1927, seriously? ", I contemplated. I tried to recall when did dinosaurs disappear? Wasn't it nearly that same period?
Anyway next we were led into a big study room with probably all exotic books in the world neatly arranged in series of bookshelves. While my parents were busy discussing some mundane matter with our host, I started exploring this mini library. A rich men's collection and a little boy's envy!
But one row that caught my attention was a series of chocolate color covered books, all neatly arranged with the title stating- Britannica Encyclopedia. I carefully removed one of the books and I soon realized that it was in fact like a dictionary in our house, but with lots of text and more importantly, it had pictures too.
Behold, I was in love for the first time in my life!
Soon tea was served and it was time to leave. While returning back, I was sitting sandwiched between my parents in our Bajaj scooter. It was getting cold and Christmas of 1986 was just around the corner. I requested my father to go to Policebazar, much to his surprise. He enquired, what did I want and I replied Britannica Encyclopedia!
He didn't reply but kept the scooter on track to climb the hills of Motinagar forest. Next day, he returned home with a plenty of books, but no, it was not Britannica Encyclopedia, rather all the class 1 NCERT textbooks. He informed me that I had cleared the interview for class 1 in a central school in Assam, and would have to write the half-yearly exam soon. He was proud knowing that his only son almost got a double promotion, but with a sad tone, he said that if I study well then I could one day afford to buy Britannica Encyclopedia of my own.
Now both my father and Encyclopedia Britannica are no more, but memories will remain forever.