Potter and his spellbinding ways
SANGEETH KURIAN
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It’s time for Harry to say goodbye.
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Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar
Pottermania: Children at the Harry Potter festival organised by the British Library.
The city was in the grip of Harry Potter fever last week as hordes of teenagers trooped out even as early as 5 a.m. to welcome the boy wizard who transported them to the magical world of Hogwarts. Harry Potter fans could hardly suppress their excitement following revelation that their favourite hero has survived the showdown with the evil Lord Voldemort.
“Harry is alive,” squealed out 11-year-old Nandan, a class VII student of Christ Nagar School, Kowidar, hurriedly flipping through the concluding pages of the book- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a seven part magnum opus from the British writer J.K Rowling.
The novel which reached the book stores in the city by 5.30 a.m. was however made available to children only by 6.30 a.m. to coincide with the timing of the global release of the book.
But the delay was hardly a deterrent for Harry Potter fans who queued up outside some of the leading book stores such as Modern Book Centre, DC Book House and TBS Publishers Distributors, braving rainy weather.
Some had even placed a bet with their friends on the fate of Harry following a showdown with Lord Voldemort, whom many described as ‘pure evil.’
Spoilers
Bookstores in the city came up with special release functions, which included reading from selected pages and distribution of sweets. They had also decked up the stores with banners and cut outs of characters from the book.
Nikhil, G.T., a class XII student at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pangode expressed his disappointment at the New York Time review on the book published on Friday that gave away the details of the plot.
“The review really spoiled the fun,” he said.
But if you think Rowling has sold her books by just mesmerising children think again.
One of the early enthusiasts to snap up the novel was Harshita Attaluri, deputy commissioner of police. An avid reader of the Potter series, Ms Attaluri says that there are a lot of virtues which children can pick up from the boy wizard such as friendship and bravery. The most important thing is that these virtues are not presented as homilies but through various situations which Harry and his friends face," she said. And like most of the readers Ms Attaluri too feels that the series was aptly concluded by Rowling with the destruction of Voldemort.
As Aravind Senan, a class five student of Loyola puts it “a new edition of Harry Potter without Voldemort is unthinkable.”
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