Mallika: Coming back to my heart
1976–1977
By the time the winter holidays began, I was back to reading in bed at night. I read slowly. I read books that made me happy. Ma borrowed books from everyone she knew. She got me Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Gerald Durrell, PG Wodehouse, and Stephen Leacock, and a book I had never heard of called I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Through these books, laughter returned to my heart. Then one of our neighbours lent Ma Charlotte Brontë’s Villette. When I reached the part where Lucy Snowe buries all the precious letters written to her by Dr John, whom she loves, I abandoned the book. It felt as though I were abandoning a dear friend whose burden was beyond my capacity to bear. I patted the novel and apologized, ‘I’ll come back to you when I’m bet
