Reading between the lines................

Those who had been CBSE English Core students would remember this phrase – ‘Crumbling walls, wobbly doors and no windows.’ Do you remember it? If you don’t, you probably were surfing the net on your phone when your English teacher was making you memorise this.

It is imperative of you to memorise some quirk phrases in your answers to score marks, that was what I thought. I still remember the efforts I painstakingly undertook to have a grasp over some phrases like –“ An endless fountain of immortal drink, pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.’ or ‘Seemapuri, is a  place on the periphery of Delhi, yet miles away from it ,metaphorically.’.  Though I must say once I had these fixed in my mind, I was regularly quoting it everywhere, even in the most absurd situations.

Bu, I would say, I felt sort of related to the novel when I had some interesting parts at the back of my mind and could quote it offhand. By the time I was finishing my twelfth, I could pick up some favourites amongst the stories I had read especially because of their catchy phrases and impressing sentences.

Now, being an English Literature student is double trouble fun. Having some juicy novels to devour makes it hard to find a favourite. But, the phrase business still flourishes; you only have a wider field. You pick up any book; you can have ‘n’ number of favourite phrases.

So, my recent pick is – ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’  Guess which novel this phrase belongs to?

Ummmm..... By the time you read this, you would be wondering why I took much pain to write such a morose article. I suffer from monotony. so why not get you to take a spoonful of it?