Learning the real lessons of life

I still remember the first illustrated book that my mother read to me when I was just three years old. It was The Wonderful Adventure of Nils, a masterpiece from Selma Lagerlof, the first woman writer from Sweden who won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

What still remains deeply etched in my memory are the vivid illustrations that captured the animal world in its entirety for a three-year old. On most occasions, I felt that was the protagonist Nils in the story and that it was me who was on the back of a goose. Those feelings of nostalgia linger in my mind even today.

Although my mother, a reserved woman but a keen reader, had not told me what to learn from the story, I often learnt the lessons myself. Some of these like "to not look down upon and bully the animals" and several other things that most humans habitually think as inferior are often things endowed with great mystery and still remain fresh in my memory. There were some valuable lessons that I learnt like: "How happiness is all about helping others" and "That by helping others, one would get help when he or she needs it".