Long live Harry Potter!

Its over...its finally over. The stories of Harry Potter. Yes he's alive and he continues to be the 'Boy who lived', but theres no more new stories. And well I do feel a little sad and emotional about it. The very fact that I'm not gonna be able to wait in anticipation about wat mite happen to him next. It mite sound a little crazy, and to some it mite seem like its sooooo past our age to feel for sumthing like this, not to forget "its a teenager.. stories for young kids!!"But I sumhow have never really felt the books were just for kids, like most other adults reading and enjoying harry potter.
I started reading Potter when I was in my 2nd year of college, and until then I never used to read books just as much. Just after 12th grade, a friend of mine referred me to Harry Potter & the Philosopher's stone, and I tried reading it the first time, but really cudn't get past the first 3 chapters. I was like this is crazy... its for kids...11 year olds... I cant read books like that. (Not that I used to be a voracious reader then with a huge choice of books.) But I jus shunned the book and was a little surprised that this was one of the most famous books around the globe. And in fact my interest in books and the very habit of reading hit rock bottom after that. But in 2002 Dec, when my sis had come down to India for a vacation, she and my bil were extremely excited that they had found the 4 harry potter books outside Higginbothams for just 200 bucks. The pair of them gave me the books and demanded that I read the books and familiarize myself with the stories before my trip to the USA in summer 03. And well b'cos my bil had convinced me that I WAS missing sumthing in life if I dint read HP, I started with book 1. And I made sure I read the book till its very last page, without getting judgemental right after the first 3 chapters. I was a slow reader then and after wat seemed like a semester, I started off with book2. That one felt duller than book1. And after a bit of a struggle, I reached book 3 by which time I was already on my summer vacation in CA. But once I reached book 3, I began to adore the stories of this young boy wizard. I felt I was able to associate with small things in the books quite well then, espply the fact that u have this long this train journey to reach to Hogwarts, with the whole train packed with students (not unlike chennai central - TN express on 28/29th July every year), friends and jus friends doing everything for u and everything with u in a hostel/boarding skool. I felt closer to the books and closer to the characters in the books with time. And after book3, i guess there was just no looking back. Harry Potter had become one of those frequently discussed topics, over the dining table at my sister's (It still remains a central topic of discussion, along with LOTR and some thalaivar movies!!!), with wingies in the hostel, and one of the favourite topics of discussion in sky! :) And it felt like I could talk about books or atleast understand wat a person meant when they said they have a favourite book/ favourite author. It felt good.
And then I started re-reading all the Harry Potter-s. The first time u read the book, (actually any book for that matter), u read it fast just to know the story. Rowling spins the story around so well, u just want to know wat the hell is happening, and who in merlin's name is gonna die and how! But the second time u read the same book, u already know the story and thats when u start associating with the emotions involved amidst the different characters. U get closer to the characters in the book when u can imagine their emotions and feel atleast a little close to wat they feel in the book. The Potter movies have NEVERRR been able to do justice to that. The movies can concentrate only on the story line with sum stunning effects to show sum fantasy, because of the limitation of time. But the books are a LOTTTTTTT more than jus that. Theres no set limits to the words or to the imagination. Its the different emotions Harry, Ron and Hermione go thru ....relationships, loneliness, adoloscence, trust, faith, friendship, death, acceptance of people and truth as it is, and every small and huge thing in life. And every time I read and re-read Harry Potter, I'd find sumthing new striking me, I'd find a new theory and come up with a new hypothesis as to why Rowling was doing that to some main character. And I'd call my sister or some of my other Non-muggle friends and discuss their opinions of a certain theory.
The books have been such an important part of my life for the last 5 years or so. I've been caught in the Potter mania, creating a lot of it myself amidst my group of friends. And now when I c that theres gonna be no more of all that....no more of passionate frenzied discussions about this and that of Harry Potter, no more guessing the suspense the future books might hold, no more eagerly awaiting the stroke of midnite for a new book, no more enthusiastically putting a nite out for those huge hard cover books! I feel like its the end of a phase of my life or sumthing. It feels totally psenti :( Well, deflly I know the books can be read over and over again and the movies rewatched a million times (which is wat I will end up doing, I know), but the fact that the story-teller has spun the yarn and decided to call it done is a little difficult to accept. "And to you if you've stuck with Harry till the very end", she says, in the 7th dedication of the 7th book.

Well Thankyou J.K Rowling for creating a world like Harry Potter, for teaching kids to be imaginative, for helping adults kindle the child in them, for helping us relive memories and emotions that we have all been thru as kids... and thankyou more so for helping me and a lott like me, make reading an enjoyable habit. Thankyou for all your books, which will be read, re-read and read again and cherished forever!