Grandson to Grandpa

My mom was a tenth grade Hindi teacher and loved fiction. My dad, although an accountant, also loved to read fiction. It was fun to watch them discuss various novels and when my aunt came over, the three of them would talk about novels that they read, sitting under the blue starry sky of an Indian evening until the fruit bats came, and they realized that it was almost midnight and they would go inside.  So, needless to say four out of six children of my parents love to read for fun besides college or work material.  My brothers and I could not wait for our turn to read a good young adult novel that our parents would get for us. However after I got married, I did not get the same company.  My husband thinks that fiction is a waste of time.  Some one told him when he was young that he needs to read fact books only. So he thought that I was wasting  my time.  That did not stop me from reading. I made sure that my kids grew up around fiction from the age of two. They love books of all kinds . So I did my job as a mom. Year after year, I felt sad for my husband for being deprived of such wealth of enjoyment. His memory is extremely sharp and the fact that he does not want to read what people wrote is something I cannot figure out.  It is ironic that as much as I love to read,  it is not easy for me to retain fiction in my mind and following long stories have become a problem . So I have been bugging my husband to enjoy reading for fun, not just for learning and I think I have succeeded a little bit. 

 After reading Granny Annie's inspirational blog post I have made up my mind to look at the positive sides of things. Granted, it is cold outside and snow storms  do not seem to cooperate with work schedules, I decided to enjoy our grand-kids even from  long distance by talking about them and remembering each and every visit and comparing how they are growing up each time my husband and I see them.We discussed how one day our eight year old grand son told us in a matter of fact way that his class is trying to understand the different genres of books.  My husband at first did not realize that an eight year old could use the word "genre". However  he seemed to understand when I told him how the world is changing very fast and kids are being introduced to all kinds of books as long as they do not have foul language.  I told him that it is a good thing that fiction books are being introduced to kids at a young age as well as fact books. Guess what ? While so much of my nagging and convincing did not prompt my husband to read, the fact that our grand-kids are into fiction books is making him look into fiction as well. He is taking interest in different characters of Marvel comics and yesterday he watched the movie X- Men.  Now the question is - - - will he read fiction?