Harry Potter And Me

We welcome Rekha on ZR who is generous enough to be sharing her experience of getting to know Harry Potter and the world of magic through the books.

Being an ardent fiction fan, I stayed away from reading Harry Potter series until 4-5 months back. Why? Because I never enjoyed reading stories on black magic, witchcraft and I believed Harry Potter series was for ‘kids’.

I did read about the Potter mania and its wide appeal among all age groups. But I thought it wasn’t my kind of book. When my friends and my daughter’s friends convinced me to read at least one, I decided to give it a go. I remember picking up the first, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone and there was no stopping me.

I found myself in Hogwarts, one among the 11 year olds, attending Prof. McGonagall’s classes, loving Dobby, Hagrid and Dumbledore, wanting to save Harry, Ron and Hermione from You-know-who and his supporters, hating Prof. Snape…… One book led to the other and I read all of them back to back.

My 6 year old son waited for me to finish a book so that I could tell him the story. He believes he is in Gryffindor only because he is in the red house in his school. My 10 year old daughter enriched my Potter knowledge by sharing Potter trivia. I saw her and her friends playing Harry Potter games, using ‘spells’ on each other.

The magic J.K. Rowling has created with Harry Potter series has surely taken all Potter fans to a magical land, which at times, I tend to believe could be real. If ever I go to King’s Cross station, I, who is in my thirties now, would definitely look for between platforms 9 and 10. What if there is a Hogwarts Express waiting there for me?

Rekha Rajagopal

Thanks so much Rekha. We are sure a child in each one of us wishes to take a ride on Hogwarts Express and to see Hogwarts at least once :) This speaks volumes about the creative genius of the author.