Tuesday 24 July 2007

The End of Harry Potter? I think not.

Warning: If you are an ardent Harry Potter fan and have not yet finished Deathly Hallows (although any fan worth his/her salt should have by now!), I advice you to stop reading, for I shall not bear responsibility in the event that you prematurely discover how it all ends and feel like strangling me for leaking it to you.

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Now that we have that out of the way… :)
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Anyone who calls them kiddie books will abruptly find themselves facing a force to be reckoned with – I take Hogwarts very seriously and spent many a day hoping that I too would receive an owl with a letter welcoming me to the world of witches and wizards, goblins and house-elves, hippogriffs and thestrals, pensieves and snitches, gillyweed and blast-ended skrewts, Veela and Dementors, horcruxes and hallows (yes I know what you are all thinking: this time she has definitely gone mental! :p).
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I first met Harry when I was 16, in our Physics lab at school, where Surabhi introduced us. At that time Harry was still a nobody; it was just The Philosopher’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets, but I fell in love with the books instantly. Before long my beloved Prisoner of Azkaban came along and by then we became inseparable – I read and reread them, waiting exasperatedly for The Goblet of Fire, from where began the touches of dark magic, and then the shadow of evil cast over Harry’s world.
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And then she made us wait for while, that J.K. Rowling did. When The Order of the Phoenix was finally released, Hargobind and I were amongst the other crazy loons standing outside Suria KLCC at 4 in the morning, waiting for the doors to open at 6 and then run up the stairs to the 5th floor and wait for Kinokuniya to let us in at 8. I have not had the courage to read that whole book more than once – I’ve made it almost to the end countless times and then I have to stop – I can only watch Sirius die once and even that was one time too many.
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For The Half Blood Prince I spent the eve of my beautiful breezy summer birthday standing outside a bookstore in London with Surabhi, waiting for the store to open at midnight. I didn’t sleep that night as I had to finish it, and when it ended I was in shock. Dumbledore was no more, but Sirius’s death had crushed me so hard that this felt like a shielded blow. It also gave me another reason to hate Snape – he was vile, vile and I loathed reading his name. And so I spent my 22rd birthday only ¾ awake and in a sad mixture of joy and pain (yet I would not want it to be any different).
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And now the last one, Deathly Hallows. I was so excited that my arm was trembling as I reached out to pick it up at the bookstore, and I ran pretty much all the way home (except for the time I was in the LRT :p) to start reading it.
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And I loved it. A little slow to pick up, but I thought the plot was clever and I loved the way it unraveled very slowly. Rowling answered all the questions I’ve had on my list since I read the first book, and I am content.
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I was devastated when Dobby died – he was too pure for this world. But the hardest truth to swallow was the Story of Severus Snape; I feel so much remorse – I had always thought the worst of him and he turned out to be the one that probably had the greatest capacity to love. I don’t think I can ever forgive him for driving Sirius to his death, but now I will think of him in better light - to me he is the real hero.
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To some, the last book may mark the end of the world of Harry Potter, but to me (and undoubtedly to countless others), the child in me will still sit by my windowsill, looking out into the darkness of the night for a half-giant on a flying motorbike, waiting for him to whisk me away to a world filled with wonder.
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Harry Potter truly is, The Boy Who Lived.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I did shed a tear or two for Dobby. Talk about loyalty. Rowling does an amazing job of leaving me satisfied.

Anonymous said...

No Comments on Hari Puttar! :-)

Anonymous said...

Harry Potter is a neo-con anyway.

Some worrying developments in Canada here.

And something else that Sikhs in the UK should be interested in here.

Gurumustuk Singh said...

Ok...I had to refrain from reading since I am reading the book right now. Family duties and work only allows for a bit of time every night to read. It's one of those things that catches you and you are not "released" untill you finish the book.

I'll read what you had to say when I am done since I don't want to spoil any of the story :)

Harkiren Kaur said...

Lols Gurumustuk,

I suppose I don't have constraints like you do with Narayan and Charanjeet being around.. It was a lot easier for me to hide in my room until I finished!

Hargobind Khalsa said...

the boy who lived. how true. i felt this emptiness inside when i read the last line. it was really the end.

the history of the characters was brilliant, but i felt the quest for the horcruxes was better illustrated in the spoof i read. as well as the psychology behind harry potter. the reasons for his choices. whoever wrote it knows that world as rowling.

harry potter saved my life. thank you for lending me your copy of the philosopher's stone in form 1, despite the long list of 'to-do-nots' when in the same vicinity as the book pasted on my table next to it. haha!

cheers

Anonymous said...

just read it, i totally agree with hargobind. the history in the book was brilliant, but i still prefer the spoof i read, as i had more ginny and she was the life and soul of the book.

still, nonetheless, jk rowling is the most brilliant creature on earth.