Pottermania

I realised I was a very insignificant creature in this big bad world of ours. If only you could spare and overlook my non vegetarian eating habits you would have realised that I am one of those guys who are contended staying deep down at the bottom of the food chain. So the thought that somebody would have dedicated a book to me came as a rather rude shock. But when the realisation set in I was ecstatic, enthralled and subjected to a whole lot of states of mind which presently I dont remember. The significant event in my life was that J K Rowling had finally decided to dedicate the last book of the Harry Potter series to all her readers who have followed Harry Potter religiously through the last few years in the battle against the dark lord Voldemort. Well it was an honour that I rightfully deserved when you consider that I was one of those 11 million guys who contributed to the record breaking sales on the very first day of the release of the book. But here are some other top reasons why the dedication of the book to readers like me made perfectly logical sense.

• Deathly French hallows: I had prebooked the final copy of Harry Potter at the Virgin megastore near my office. Now considering the fact that the French love their book smeared with French (i.e. they always have a fascination for reading the translated version of English bestsellers) it was quite a difficult task to make the French speaking book store attendants understand the entire concept of pre booking the Harry Potter book. Considering the fact that they already had a big Harry Potter release countdown POP display it was a very horrendous experience.
• Misorder of the phoneix: Prebooking of the Harry Potter book proved to be quite a misordering when you consider the fact that the book was as freely available as wine bottles in almost all the bookstores of Paris. Well finally I realised that prebooking is only necessary when you are sitting in some remote corner of Timbaktu (wherever that place is).
• Goblet of Disaster-Barry Trotter: Incidentally apart from the 6 and half books of Harry Potter that I have had the auspicious opportunity to gobble down, I also have discredited myself by reading two books of the Barry Trotter series. It is a spoof showing the pornograhic side of Barry Trotter who has a strong resemblance with Harry Potter and whose life is a total disaster. I survived two Barry Trotters and according to some it was quite a credit that should be applauded.
• Fool Blood cousins: My cousins have always been great fans of the Potter movies. I mean till the time somebody is a fan, it is ok with me but being a fanatic is quite something different. So when the kids channel POGO had this glorious idea of airing Harry Potter flicks 24*7, my cousin had tortured me by making me see the same old movies of Harry Potter over and over again and again. Think of any worser way to spend a weekend in Bangalore!! Had felt myself to be a fool blood bloody fool after that, subjecting myself to such torture.
• Philosopher's groans: For more than half a decade now I have had the glorious opportunity of listening to Potter philosophy from humans in various forms shapes and sizes. The most outstanding among them was Darshan a pal from college days who had this immensly irritating habit of relating everything with the life and time of Potter. So the discussions included such hilarious complaints like "our college building does not look like Hogwarts","Wish I could do magic and sneak the question paper before the exam", "Will Voldemort die in the end?" I dont know whether he has finally got his answer with the seventh book because last heard he was honeymooning in God's own country Kerela blissful with his own marriage. Maybe Potter is passe infront as compared to a newly wed wife.
• Chamber of Secrets: The little secret is that Bloomsbury would be very disappointed to hear that I bought the pirated version of the book till the 5th edition. That was the only option available to an unemployed guy like me who wanted to know the outcome of the good versus evil story. I hope hearing this bit of information, Bloomsbury does not classify me as a death eater. The other little secret is that Bloomsbury would be very proud to know that the pdf version of the 6th book was available in a matter of hours from the release of the book on the file server of IMT. So the 6th version was also gobbled down by me in a pirated form.
• Prisoner's of Pottermania: Love him or hate him but you cant ignore him. I guess the Potter craze is something which is very much a reality and yes a lot of people like me have been prisoners of pottermania since a very long time. And finally the end is here and the series would be remembered as one of the best written series of all times that has appealed to children and youth and also elders (like my mother).

So it does make proper sense for Rowling to dedicate the book to me and the likes of me. This tribute to Harry Potter was all the more inspired by the fact that I saw at least 5 people balancing the huge book in their hands and trying to read it while waking to their offices. I have never tried that kind of insane stuff myself. But I guess everything related to Potter is as unexpected as the books are and one last thought does haunt me like crazy. Doesnt Voldemort tire of losing the duels over and over again. I mean he looks more like our very own Mahishashur who loses the battle against Ma Durga every year and again comes back the next year to lose again. This rare fact inspired a cartoon series which showed that Mahisashur was utterlly frustrated with the every year losing business and tried to outsource this little piece of non value adding work of dying every year to somebody else. I guess Voldemort also requires to think of such options to make the real Harry Potter more in sync with the Barry Trotter that I have come to love. Goodbye Potter, we would surely miss you.