I really do not remember when I read my first Reader’s Digest but it has been a part of my life forever. My family had a collection of Reader’s Digest (RD) dating back to the 60’s and one of my ritualistic summer activity was to arrange these books chronologically. It meant I pull all books down from the book shelf, split them up based on the decade of publication and ofcourse read through the interesting bits all over again before putting them back in place. The smell of old books and the content always cheered me up on those hot summer afternoons when I was struck inside home.

Sometime in the 90’s our subscrption was canceled for no reason, later restarted as a birthday gift and my love for these books never dimmed. In recent years I have found that I really did not enjoy RD’s much. May be I had graduated to other serious reads or may be it was the quality of the articles, I never stopped to analyze what changed. But anytime I see a RD I pick it up and flip the pages till I reach “Laughter is the best medicine” or “All in a day’s work” or “Humor in Uniform” and enjoy it. They also provided me with a trademark comfort on those train journeys and it was a book enjoyed by my travel companion no matter whom I traveled with.

The RD’s sweepstakes did always create a flutter during those teen years and the latest I remember is right before my wedding when my cousins got thrilled over the 15 lakhs RD promised me for sharing the addresses of 15 of my friends. I remember my then 10 year old cousin GP calculating how many cheetos packets his share of 5 lakhs will buy.

Why this sudden nostalgic trip about RD you wonder? I just read this article and it does feel bad. RD was a childhood memory that can never be taken out of my life. Thanks RD for all those wonderful summer days memories.