Book Shop

Yesterday I went to a book shop in one of the malls here...gurgaon has some fine malls you see. There was a sale going on so it was a bit crowded. I was browsing through on title when I heard a female voice saying "pick that one". I looked around and saw no one. Again I heard the voice "no no, pick that one". Well I now realised that the voice was comming from other side of the store. Again I heard " this not a good one, it won't be of much use to you, pick the other one". I went to the other side of the store and saw a layd in here late twenties telling her son, which book to pick up. The child should have been aged four or so. He seemed intrested in some cartoon book while her mother insisted that it won't do him any good. She wanted him to read "Alice in Wonderlan" instead as she thought that it was a good one. Not to say that "Alice in wonderland" is not a good book, but what possible good would it do to a four year old was beyound my ken. Anyway I went ahead with my own browsing and after sometime stumbled on "The kitchen God's wife" by Amy Tan. I picked the book and after paying for it, was on my way out of the mall when I saw the same mother-son standing at a nearby ice cream parlour. The kid was demanding chocolate flavour but the mother insisted that he should have strawberry instead as chocolate was not good for him. Suddenly I found the connection between what I was seeing now and what I saw in the book shop. The mother was just moulding the child into what she thought was "Good" afterall it was her child and she knew what was goodfor her child, beit books or be it icecream. The cartoon book was just another form of chocolate icecream. The mother was just selecting the right baby feed in the book store !!!