Dream peddler

“Blue blistering barnacles!!!!

Thundering typhoons!!!

You nincompoops, interplanetary pirates, I am not going into that flying coffin again!!!!”

 

 

–Capt. Haddock to Thompson and Thomson in the,” Explorers on the Moon”

 

 

 

Oh!!! How could I forget captain Haddock and his favorite Loch Lomond brand of whiskey? And the inimitable Cuthbert Calculus, Bianca Castafiore, the two bumbling detectives? I was lazing around… in front of the idiot box last night, and suddenly this show on cartoon network came up…I just thought of watching Tintin for a change… and I exclaimed to myself, “blue blistering barnacles, I forgot almost all the stories in it!!!! And once it had been one of my choicest of all books. I still remember I almost pestered my mom to insanity every other day, to buy me all the Tintin series until I had all 23 of them. Hee haw!!! Someday I was too bored of reading them over and over again, I would scramble up to my mom’s lap and blurred out,

 

“MOOOOm, read this story for me, pleaseeeee” my dad was always my back up plan, because he was a bit impatient while reading out stories. Lol…

 

 

There was a time, when I had almost memorized the entire 23 books, err… well almost!! I used to sit with a Tintin book on the dining table, while having meals, and I could hear my mom screaming,

 

“Why do you bring this book, along with the food?”

And she used to show stupid excuses,

 

”if you don’t pay attention to what you are eating, you will never grow up into a strong boy!!”

 

And I being the smallest of all kids, used to look up to mom, starry eyed, and murmur under my breath,

 

“Ma, just this one last time, only 10 pages left to read” my mom would say,

 

“no, leave this book, I will tell you a nice story instead… oh!! I was heart broken!

 

A child and his childishness hah!! My mom finally gave up the idea.

 

Then there were days, when we actually used actually play being Tintin. Ewes, what was that game. Umm, well we used build houses with the legos and actually make up our own story with a certain tuft less Tintin, a hot tempered captain Haddock, and the good old Cuthbert calculus, who used to act as he was “a little hard of hearing.” And that game would be fun, with occasional fights,(childhood adventures you know).

 

One day I even slipped one Tintin book into my school bag, so that I could read it in class, and I did, and I got my caught too!!! I had a guardian call. Gawwwd, I can still pain in my butt, I was crying like a baby (well… I was one at that time…). My dad locked up all my 23 hot collection in the cupboard, until my final examination was over. God!! How crazy can dads get over silly things!!

 

 

I reached for my precious book shelf, wiped out the dust, went through the stupid Enid Blytons, hardy boys, the dumb old pop-up books, the john grishams and the amitav ghoshs’ until I found the entire 23 crazy diamonds. The pages have turned yellow, with time, the corners of the front covers were coming off, I wiped the dust off with my hands, and thought oh! Crap what a mad little brat I was, over this immortal soul, and handed it over to my 6 yr old cousin sister, who went away dancing… I was really happy that day.

Its like passing on a precious gem, the passion will never die.

Hey c’mon guys this Tintin fever’s not yet over now, I got a Tintin cd collectors pack, the entire lot.