The train to Hogwarts

It happened so that, one fine day after dinner, having nothing else to do, i clicked open a folder in my friends laptop - a pandoras box it was to be - titled 'HP series'. I too would have been bewildered like you are just now, wondering wat does this HP stand for?? But not now, for i was unaware that action of mine, opening that folder, would transform me forever in to a HP series fan. 'I am a Harry Potter fan' was one thing that never failed to bring a frown in my face. I can't help myself off with the whirls of memory that bought me back to the pictures of the long queues in front of the book stores the night before a book in that series was to hit the shelves; a movie of the HP series hitting the big screens being made a headline news. How I wished back then to be an editor of that channel or the news paper so that i could highlight those news in the poorest light possible, may the shortest font in the last page of the last column of that news paper. I believed it was despicable to waste time in such imaginary fantasies, to have such 'wild dreams'. It meant nothing less to me than a crime.

I opened that magical box, on that fateful moment, which i had shunned for years. Little did i know, it was to change my world upside down, for at least a few days to come. It contained all the movies released till date. To be exact and factual - seven of them. I, always being disciplined and systematic, started off with the first : HP and the Philosophers stone. I finished that. There was no going to bed that night. By the time i realized it was morning from the crowing of the crows, i had finished four of that wonderful and amazing series. Still not tired or sleepy and to my great amusement - wanting more. I don't find a need to delve in to the details of the movie nor the story and make it look just normal. But one thing i should mention here is that though technically the movies got better and better, the stories always remained stagnant - at their very best.
           

                                                                                  

I completed the other three the following day, which did not come as a surprise to me even though i never had the reputation of having a dogged determination. I felt so happy to see them all but found it impossible to wait for the last of the series to hit the screens the same week, which might have seemed shorter in any other time. Then i realized how i had escaped the painful and agonizingly patient wait of the senior members of the HP fans league to which i had recently enrolled into. But this was truly unusual. Ensuring I got myself and my wolf pack of 11, tickets for the premiere show, which i believe so firmly even now that i was entitled to it. The only worry while enjoying the story unwind at an engrossing pace in the cinemas had been that, my friend seated next to me had wanted me to explain some of the wizardical nomenclatures and the spells in it. But soon he too was into the movie very much after finding all his enquiries falling in deaf ears. It was an enthralling experience and was par expectations. What bemused me after the show was, more than feeling content, which i never was, i could not take that i was not to see those immortal characters again on the screens to entice us with more adventures.

I had been dreaming of HP and his tripod Ron and the lovely Hermione, Hogwarts, Hagrid and many but not You-Know-Who without fail in all my sleep that week. Even i wanted to be with them in the actions, I ended up disgustingly as a mute spectator from another planet. The best of them all dreams took form the following weekend when i boarded the train home. I slept good for i was tired but i found myself in the steam-engined train - The Hogwarts Express. It was too good to be true, so to speak it was not true.

When i woke up, i realized i have been living in the dream world Ms.Rowling had gifted the world, that had begun to be too existential and busy to have a dream, leave alone one of a fantasy genre. I felt so energized, refreshed and full of cherubic delight and thoughts. Chanting those spells, checking with self made wands with 'a quick swish and a flick' if they really worked - all slyly and strictly when left all alone, praying whole heartedly for it to work, only to bring a disappointed smile in my face. The fact that i failed to read the books as and when they hit the shelves over a decade, may have possibly helped me to cherish the movies well, but always kept me away from breaking into the tripod even in my own dreams. As i wave good bye to them, I understand with unfathomable sorrow that i have missed the train to Hogwarts - forever.