Eleven years of a Childhood...

There would be very few children born in the 90s, whose childhood memories would be complete without mentions of 'Harry Potter'. I'm definitely not one of them. Harry Potter is the reason many children started reading...the reason many started believing in magic....Harry Potter is not just a book, it is a part of people's lives. The magical world of Hogwarts has, for the past 11 years, enthralled millions of people the world over. Including me.

It was on a lonely evening somewhere in the second week of April 2000 that I first started reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.(No, I'm not that bad a fan..I know thats not the first book!) My brother and I were both stuck at home for three weeks, due a bout of chickenpox. (I inflicted my brother with it..HAHA.) With nothing to do and nowhere to go, my mum thought the only way to keep us from scratching our scabs was to dump books into our hands. And so she borrowed the first three books from my neighbour's kids.
"I've heard these are really nice children's books. You should try reading these." She said, and gave the books to us.  And thus started for me, over a decade of magical insanity.
As my brother started with the first book, I picked up Prisoner of Azkaban and gave it a read. A little boy waiting for the clock to strike 12 for his birthday. Owls delivering letters. Blowing up an aunt. Running away from home. Boarding the Knight bus. Even without reading the first two books, I was hooked. (Only till page 49, for by then my brother was done with the 1st book and I got my turn)

Through the past eleven years, I've done all that one has to do to be called a true Harry Potter fan. Stood in lines from 5:30am to get a copy of a new book; bought any book that had the words "Harry Potter" or "J.K. Rowling" in the title; bought merchandise including t shirts, keychains, posters, pencil boxes, bags, mugs and a lot more. Seen all the movies on the first day. Collected articles and pictures about the books and movies. Joined 'Harry Potter' fansites. Forced a parent to read the books. Fought with people who dislike Harry Potter for no reason. Yes, I'm totally a part of the Harry Potter generation.

Although there will be no more books or movies to look forward to, I'm going to cherish all the years I spent watching, talking about and reading Harry Potter. As one of my friends correctly pointed out, 'Magic Never Ends'... nor will the madness that surrounds Harry Potter.

Thank you, J.K. Rowling, for the characters of your imagination, that made up an imporant part of my life. Thank you, Rowling, for these eleven magical years...