Enid Blyton: The Bestselling Author Since 1930

As an adult it’s sometimes embarrassing to admit my love for author Enid Blyton. The truth however is that she was the only author I read for a major chunk of my middle school days. She introduced me to the world of fantasy and as a child, her storybooks have pretty much designed my creativity and imagination. Her 118^th birthday was on 11^th August last week and I decided to dedicate my blog post to her.

After reading any random book of The Five Find-outer and Dog series, I felt desperate to live in the British countryside and be friends with native children. I wanted to form my own little team of detectives who would go around solving major crimes. I longed to have a secret meeting place where the door would be opened only after giving the correct password and once inside I would be greeted by the crackling fire, the warm smiles and an assortment of delicious snacks. I’m sure, any girl who has ever read the St. Claire Series or the Naughtiest Girl series, have at some point wanted to live in a boarding school! Yes, Blyton has that effect on children; she made the dull school life away from home look like picnics peppered with birthday celebrations, midnight detours and hanging out in the common rooms. I always wanted to own the “wishing chair” which would take me to faraway places like the Land of Goodies or the Land of Dreams. Personally I wanted to find the Wishing Chair more eagerly than the Faraway Tree in the Enchanted Forest because climbing a tree seemed like a lot of hard work!

Enid Blyton used to write with the pen name Mary Pollock. She was a versatile author who apart from the above mentioned themes wrote about education, natural history and biblical narratives! Her works have been translated into ninety different languages. Children in Britain voted for her making her the most popular children’s author of all time! Sadly though, critics, educationalists and even parents have widely criticized her works deeming them unfit to be read by children. Her books have been banned at quite a few schools and libraries owing to their supposed elitist, sexist, racist and xenophobic nature. She never researched for any of her stories and thus inevitably plagiarized the stories that she read, sometimes her own works too! She claimed that planning the course of action for her books had never worked out for her. She let the stories unfold themselves before her eyes, in their own time and pace. She herself didn’t know what direction her plot will take at any point of time.

In spite of all the charges made against her, Enid Blyton continues to be the most celebrated Children’s author. Reading her works has had a positive impact on our moral compass from a very tender age. She has made us realize that even as children we can work wonders if we are kind and focused on our work. She made us realize that nothing can hold us back from achieving greatness if we put our minds to it and for all these wonderful lessons I salute her.

College Is Just Fine

It occurred to me that although I’ve been writing for quite a while now and going around shoving my opinion down everyone’s throat, I really haven’t written about myself in a while. With the pre-placement training going on in my college since the past week, I’ve been asked one question quite a few times already: “Tell me about you” and so here I am writing about myself, and honestly my college has made me who I am today. So there's no way I brag about myself without talking about my college.

I am a fourth year undergraduate student enrolled in a private engineering college of the state, pursuing my degree in computer science and engineering. My father’s a retired medical representative, my mother is a housewife and my sister is the only girl in the world who I love from the core of my heart even when I hate her. I was born and brought up in Salt Lake and have spent more than two decades in the same neighborhood. In spite of that I have exactly one friend in the whole locality. She lives in the house right in front of mine and she’s beautiful, smart and culturally evolved.  I spent a decade of my school life in my last school and yet made just two friends for life. One of them is the craziest and cutest woman in the whole world and she has always pushed me to enjoy life to the fullest. The other is my best friend, the only person in the whole wide world who understands me inside out and always has my back. College has been more rewarding that way, I’ve made about half a dozen good friends and irrespective of whether we keep up or not, the bonds I share with them are going to be prized possessions forever.

I have to admit, my school days weren’t really great. The time spent with friends was undoubtedly wonderful but a school is meant to be much more than just a place to hang out with peers. College on the other hand has been unbelievably kind. Obviously there are various close-knit groups in college, but there aren’t any cliques. People are judgmental by nature but they are also open-minded and do not outcast you for any reason. My school was polished. It is reputed and is considered among the bests in the city. Yet, it failed in my eyes. My college, on the other hand, is located in the middle of nowhere and looks far from appealing. It doesn't have a canteen. Travelling there is probably an obstacle racer’s worst nightmare. And if it’s the rainy season, then do not even imagine about it! But in spite of that, we all got used to it and now the very thought that it’ll soon be over is eating us up! College gave me a new outlook in life. It made me aware of things that I never I knew I had in me! It helped me find my passion and made me realize my potential. It gave me confidence, attitude and a hundred other reasons to love myself while looking forward to life. It made me who I am now and is a very crucial part of my identity.

My life is at two extremes right now! At home everyone is convinced that I won’t get a job because although I love the college version of me, at home I’m still the timid schoolgirl. On the other hand, my college friends act like I will be the first person to get the job; the reason being my aptitude, verbal and communication skills. The truth however is that I am a seven pointer who has just made a couple of eights! Now that I’ve started thinking about jobs, my brain has again started getting clogged with worry. So I’ll be back next week. Do hit a like or give a +1 if you can relate.