My most cherished #20yearsofHarryPotter moment

The ‘Harry Potter’ book series has been and probably will remain my all time favourite book. I read somewhere that it was the publishing world’s answer to the Beatles. I couldn’t agree more.

The first book – “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” was published on June 26^th 1997. So all the HP fans were going ballistic few days back on social media with the #20yearsof HarryPotter hashtag where everyone was sharing their favourite Harry Potter ‘moment’ from their childhood.

Mind you, I think Harry Potter is a very deep and profound book. But if I talk about my favourite memory associated with the book, there is a standout memory and oddly enough it has to do with one of the most innocuous passages of the first book in the 7 part series.

The context of this particular paragraph that I am referring to is that Harry Potter is attending his first ever day at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where he listens to the Headmaster (the eternal and evergreen Albus Dumbledore) addressing his students before the commencement of a new academic year.

“Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there."Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words.

And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

"Thank you!"

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not.

"Is he -- a bit mad?" he asked Percy uncertainly.

"Mad?" said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"

For some reason, as a kid, the above passage just had me in splits and Every. Single. Time. I would think about it, I would burst out laughing.

I read this book first in the year 2000 as a 10 year old. If I remember right, my dad had bought the first 3 books for me during my summer vacation. During that time, my granddad had been hospitalized for a brief period. We used to visit him in the hospital regularly and I would spend some time with him. My granddad was the most erudite, intellectual and smartest person I have ever known in my life till date. Even in his old age, he remembered word to word poetry and plot lines of books which he had read during his child hood!

One of the days, after I had read a considerable portion of the first book of Harry Potter, and when I visited him in the hospital, I could barely contain myself and told him very excitedly, “You know Appacha, there is this famous children’s book called Harry Potter these days and I am reading it and it is sooooo funny. “

Talking about the paragraph that I have quoted in the beginning, which at that point was hilariously and painfully amusing to me – I went on animatedly, “In this book, you won’t believe, when a 11 year old boy Harry Potter attends his school for the first time and his headmaster addresses the students, the headmaster HAS ONLY 4 WORDS TO SAY - NITWIT, BLUBBER, ODDMENT, TWEAK!!”

“What does that mean?”, he questioned probably genuinely shocked and concerned what a modern day children’s book was teaching kids 2 generations below than his.

“It doesn’t mean anything. It’s nonsense….. In fact even Harry Potter thinks that the headmaster is mad”, I said and burst out laughing.

Then suddenly, I saw my granddad (who had all kinds of drips/needles poked into his body) roar with laughter after ages. I think the both of us laughed together for a good few minutes till we were light headed. And then he proceeded to passionately tell me about his Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie books he had read as a child. 

Even as a kid, I could make out how something as small as me uttering some gibberish words of a Harry Potter book miraculously brought a bit of cheer to him (even if it was just for a short while) at a time when he was in such pain.  I look back at this beautiful grandfather – granddaughter moment almost 2 decades old with great fondness and affection and this by far will always be my favourite #20yearsofHarryPotter moment.