Books are as essential to the readers as oxygen is to life. As an avid reader, I have read numerous fiction, non-fiction, academic and self improvement books. However, a few books have made a deeper impact on me than many others.

One such book that immediately comes to my mind is a novel in Bengali, Pather Panchali, written by a famous Bengali novelist, Bibhutibhusan Bandyopadhyay. The english equivalent of the title of the novel is The Song of The Road.

An excerpt of the novel was in the academic syllabus of the fifth or sixth class in my school. The novel is about the childhood of the protagonist, Apu, with his sister, Durga, in a village of West Bengal. The imagination of a child, the fun of frolic  in natural environment and the excitement of seeing a moving train are so vividly depicted in the dialogues and the narration of the excerpt hat I felt compelled to read the entire novel later.

Also legendary filmmaker, Satyajit Ray, made a film on the novel, which got him international acclaim through  recognition and award. I watched the film a number of times to absorb its content and appreciate the artistic creation of a great filmmaker.

The excerpt and the novel introduced me to literature and inculcated an interest in it. Today that I am writing this piece is a tribute to the books that I read at the early stage of life.