Meet two Nobel Laureates and the legends

Reading books helps broaden the horizon of one’s knowledge, and enhance comprehension by sharpening one’s focus. Writers make us visit new worlds, meet new characters hitherto unknown to us and show how they react to, and handle unpredictable situations; thus encouraging us to be sensitive to the whole spectrum of human experience. It is through books that the vistas of the world unfold themselves to us slowly and gradually. A bibliophile since younger days, books occupy much of the space in my mind, in my daily routine, my book rack, my bedside and almost everywhere in my home.

Earnest Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea has been the first book that touched the deepest chords somewhere; and its protagonist Santiago became my first hero. During a visit to the US many years ago, seeing Hemingway at Madame Tussauds in New York and getting a picture with him was a childlike thrill.

Later, we visited Miami, Orlando, and the Florida Keys, seven small islands ending with Key West which is the southernmost tip of the US. It was a wonderful drive through the seven miles bridge surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean on one hand and the Gulf of Mexico on the other. While at Key West, a family friend told us about Hemingway’s home-turned-museum there. The visit to his house gave me a feel of the writer at work. I could visualise Hemingway typing at his typewriter, looking at the sea in the distance from his window and weaving his thoughts into a plot.

Though Old Man and the Sea is said to be written in Cuba, his home country, I could recreate the whole story in the Key West. Old Santiago walking down to the seashore; the young Manolin running across, what now have become streets of that small island; and a dejected Santiago dragging the marlin skeleton to his shack, which is now Hemingway’s house. It was a once in a lifetime experience for me.

Last year, while driving through West Virginia, my son mentioned the birthplace of Pearl S Buck somewhere around. I was curious to experience the surroundings where the writer created some outstanding literary works. Soon we were there but couldn’t go inside as it was closed that day. What came to my mind was not her famous novel, The Good Earth, but one of her short stories, The Refugees, an inspirational story of an old Chinese peasant, the victim of heavy floods that resulted in exodus of a devastated generation to the capital city. As a kind man offers him two coins, a silver and a bronze, he buys a bowl of noodles, not for himself but his infant grandson, the only surviving family, whom he is carrying under a blanket in his basket; and reserves the silver coin to buy seeds for the next harvest. For him, the small child and the seeds symbolise a promise of revival and a fresh start for a better future. His conviction and confidence in the face of adversity immortalises him as one of the best fictional characters.

Those euphoric moments when I felt affinity with those great writers overwhelm me even today. It was like meeting personally not only two Nobel Laureates but two legendary characters, two old men who endeared themselves to thousands of readers across the world with their exemplary fortitude, epitomising indomitable human spirit.

I COULD VISUALISE HEMINGWAY LOOKING AT THE SEA IN THE DISTANCE FROM HIS WINDOW AND WEAVING HIS THOUGHTS INTO A PLOT