Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Two days have kept aside newspapers, TV and internet to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Today, after a coldly pleasant morning walk, had filter kapi with Rama, took Chocolate Factory to bed; perhaps Rama is reading her first English book sent by Vidya, a reference point at home on children books. A weird mind, something near to a madness, is a sure condition for writing and reading children books though me doubts whether children read them; mostly adults, and that too a few, are in a state to flip pages of  a gooey Chocolate Factory; you have to turn innocent for an hour at the least; one read, two reads and then musing over the sequence of events, missing turns and twists. Me never read a book (an Enid Blyton for instance) till 20; roamed the streets playing ball games; Shreya and Chiyu play and watch TV with their favourite programme being Tarak Mehta ka Ulta Chashma; Madhavi and her son watch the show and replays; like the kid Mike Teavee in the Television-Chocolate Room in Chocolate Factory. Apparently, TV is something Roald Dahl does not favour going by his poetic croon;

'The most important thing we've learned
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, Never, Never let
Them near your television set --
or better still, just dont install
the idiotic thing at all....
It rots the senses in the head! .....

Well may Dahl tear his head; children love TV and mobile games; yes, they want them more than ma,dad, aji, ajoba; for lack of space, a book has to be squeezed in somewhere. But Dahl does not preach, he is no priest of any god and religion. Characters have zany names, the Chocolate Factory is bizarre, get into it and the reader goes zonky. Five kids: Charlie Bucket, Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, Mr.Wily Wonka, Mike Teavee and the Oompa-Loompas. Fine company to spend hours. Dahl is quoted for (an internet search): A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men; Nowadays you can go anywhere in the world in a few hours, and nothing is fabulous any more; I am only 8 years old, I told myself. No little boy of 8 has ever murdered anyone. Its not possible. They make up Dahl and his writing for children; probably explains why we do not have a Dahl; our wise men and women do not laugh nor nonsense. Cavity-filling caramels - no more dentists; stickjaw for talkative parents; invisible chocolate bars for eating in class...thinking them up makes Dahl a good friend to be with....to share a laugh in 2015. If nothing else, waddle in line drawings of Quentin Blake. Now am starting on Matilda.