WHAT!!? WHO!!? Come again!! I said Doctor Who….
”And what sort of a Doc is he supposed to be?”, asked my impertinent young cousin.
” He is a guy who is out to rescue the world from the evil schemes of a not-from-this-planet-earth someone” I said exasperated.
“Oh! the kind of heroes who wear their underwear for all to see?” she says with an obvious dig at Superman. She needs a lesson at receiving gifts from people(on MS, maybe), I decide.
”No, not in the costume part at least, he handles his or rather the earth’s enemy with science.” A flicker of interest there!! “Science, huh! Tell me more!!” .
Now that she had stopped scanning the sparsely illustrated book and resumed it on my face , I said” Here Goes!”.
“ Doctor Who is a man or what shall I call him because he does not belong to earth and is the inhabitant of a part of the universe that is rich in galactic (pertaining to the Universe) science which earthlings consider as magic, creatures that dabble extensively in mind games using psycho kinetic energy et al. All of them are not bad, similarly like in earth were the good and the bad co-exist tolerantly, including blood relatives!!”
Cleverly dodging my dig at her, my cousin asks” But pray, who bringeth such disaster on earth?”.
“The Doctor’s arch rival, the Renegade Time Lord a.k.a The Master, whose exclusive aim is to be the master of the weakest race of the Universe , earthlings. These two are fellow countrymen, with different ideals, once were friends(the Doc even saved the Master’s life once) banished to earth for some fault, wrongly for one or rightly, I don’t know”
A snort heard.
“Why not? I wanna know?” my cousin asks, vainly hiding her interest.
“Because I have read just two due to rarity of these books. Do you know where I found these books? At a book sale where you could take away five free books if you exceeded a certain purchase price! I scanned the place for known books but I was disappointed. I took a book on humor by Frank Muir, two books on craft (Mom’s choice) and two Doc books, only at my mom’s insistence (she had seen the shopkeeper shift his weight from one leg to the other!!) and I have since then kicked my …you know what, for not taking all five books on the Doc series. Its really good, believe me…you will surely get hooked and its better than your Enid Blytons which become unpalatable after a certain age. This one is stimulating, filled with never-ever-explored themes and fit for all ages. You will still love this book 20 + your 15.”
“Oh well! I’ve never doubted your choice of books. It seems venture able enough. Hey, just a sec..this been televised by the BBC?”asked my cousin getting a close look on the insides.
“Yes, written by Barry Lett.The Doctor’s biggest helpers as well as fumblers are humans which make the stories more interesting”.
“Wowee, I’ll sure read this and let you know.
And well…uh ….thanks!!”.
That was three days ago. This novel is a great read, but unfortunately less known in the world of subtle adventure. I decided to write about this because I wanted more people to know about this one, read it and know for themselves.
The verdict would be unanimous-stimulating, unputdownable!! Gift it to a young friend, or to someone undertaking a journey and they are going to remember you for long…. My cousin’s voice? Well, she just profusely thanked me on the phone and told me her busy dad loved it too. I’m glad for her gratefulness. I’m dropping the plan to gift her a book on manners and etiquettes.