Only I know how I finished reading Alice in wonderland when I was young. I had to read it then because everybody read it. From the start of it, I did not find a talking rabbit or a grinning cat amusing, rather they were unpleasant. I even did not like the ‘tail’ designed poem then. Everything was someone’s lot of fantasy there and I felt punished for it. What if I write such weird imagination? Who will want to read it?
Even so, I loved the half namesake of it, Runaway Alice. There was a story here, a genuine story of an orphan girl. The acceptance struggle (actually the effortless bonding) on both sides, the girl and the foster family touched a chord in me or I thought that was something a child can relate to. Runaway Alice has till date remained with me.
Then on Facebook, my friend Priyanka sometimes posted some lines from Alice in wonderland that were quite tickling. How come I don’t remember them reading, I wondered. After few such posts, Alice in Wonderland was on my wish list.
At one’s minor age, the wit behind the wordplays in the book is hard to grasp, especially, if English is not the first or enough prominent a language. Also, wise words like ‘if you don’t care where you want to go then it doesn’t matter which road you take’ can intrigue you only when your wisdom tooth grows its root at the backend and spreads to the enlightenment corner of the brain.
So if you can relate to my experience of Alice in wonderland pick up the book and start again. Thank you Priyanka, for this happiness, I owe you!
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“And how many hours a day did you do lessons?’ said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.
Ten hours the first day,’ said the Mock Turtle: ‘nine the next, and so on.’
What a curious plan!’ exclaimed Alice.
That’s the reason they’re called lessons,’ the Gryphon remarked: ‘because they lessen from day to day.”
Born Again 