Caught in the World of Harry Potter...

It was an ordinary day back when I was in the eighth standard and my grandfather had gifted us with two books. We had never heard of them... they had been brought to my grandfather by his book supplier (we used to call him Book Uncle) and my first impression was something like this...

Me: This is a children's book... It says wizard and stuff... I'm too old for this!
Dadu: Book Uncle said they are very good...
Me: I think he was fooling you...
Dadu: Ok, but still give it a read...  

So finally after initially discarding them, my younger sister and I decided to read the two books. They were Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Since we did not know which one came first, we randomly chose and I ended up with The Chamber of Secrets. Little did I know that life as I knew it, was about to change forever. The rest as they say was history. After I was transported into the world of J.K. Rowling and flew through The Chamber of Secrets, I immediately started with The Philosopher's Stone. When I had read the only two available books, I just had to share it with my friends in school. So in my small way, I publicized Harry Potter among my school friends. In the ninth standard, for our school Fancy Dress competition, I dressed up three of my classmates as Harry, Ron and Hermione... it was such a cool moment for us! Over the next few years, we were treated to the rest of the Harry Potter novels and I'm glad my childhood was part of the Harry Potter magic. Of course, like all other fans, I dreamed of an alternate universe where we would be invited to join the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was disappointed when it never happened!

The complete series of the Harry Potter books

And then Hollywood blessed us with the Harry Potter movie franchise. Though some of my friends disagreed with me and preferred to stay with their imagination of Harry Potter, I was extremely excited to see my favorite characters come alive on the big screen. Going to watch the first movie was exciting yet filled with trepidation. What if they missed the mark with the main characters? What if they story was not put across properly? The usual questions which worry fans... The first movie had me left with mixed emotions... As everyone knows, the casting was perfect but somehow the magic failed to translate. It was the third movie of the franchise Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, directed by Alfonso Cuaron which brought the magic into the movies. Finally, the movies were perfect (well obviously not as good as the books but still very good).

How the actors grew up with us :)

So after digressing a lot, I'll arrive at the point... what did I learn from the Harry Potter stories that will always stay with me?

• The hero is not always the one with the perfect physique, remarkable intelligence and amazing powers. Often he is not even a willing hero... often he is someone forced to be a hero for reasons which are bigger than him. Harry taught us that it is okay to not know everything, it is okay to be scared and it is okay to fail. What matters are the choices we make in life... to be courageous in spite of fear, to be humble in spite of being great and to accept that life goes on in spite of adversities.
• Choices in life... One of the most memorable quotes in the books is this one by Dumbledore... "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." In fact a recurrent idea in the books is that the choices we make in life matter more than we realize... sometimes they enable us to achieve greatness and sometimes they lead us to complete failure. The entire last book is based on the choice between Hallows or Horcruxes. The book might be called The Deathly Hallows but we all know what Harry ultimately chose. It is a thought which is echoed by Sirius Black when he says that we have both good and evil in us... what matters is the part we choose to act on. 
• Never underestimate the power of knowledge... Both Professor Dumbledore and Hermione taught us importance of knowledge and the constant need to keep learning. Hermione has been mocked many times for burying her nose in books but it is evident that without her constant supply of important knowledge (history of Hogwarts, how to make Polyjuice Potion, how to escape death from Basilisks), Harry would have found it difficult to overcome many of his adversaries. 
• Friendship and loyalty... Ron is the most obvious answer when it comes to lessons on friendship... the person who stays with Harry throughout his journey often at the cost of personal safety, the one who is forever under the shadow of his best friend's fame and yet never lets it get to him. Also, the friendship between James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin which proves that people may die but friendship lives. They also showed that trusting the wrong person sometimes makes the difference between life and death.
  Of course who could forget Dobby, the most loyal friend Harry had, the one who even sacrificed his life to help Harry. Let me tell you there was not a dry eye anywhere when the little elf died...
• Laughter is the best medicine... Fred and George showed us that laughter is sometimes the best thing you can offer when things are going wrong. Throughout the books, they provide the necessary comic relief and my favorite moment is when they fly out of Hogwarts with a breath-taking fireworks show. They were the true definition of entrepreneurs. They also made us think that anything is possible if we have the nerve for it. That Fred dies laughing is one of the most heart-breaking moments but a quiet reminder that even in our worst moments, we must find things to be happy for.
• Don't be ashamed of yourself... This is in fact a quote by Hagrid which goes "I am what I am an’ I’m not ashamed. ‘Never be ashamed,’ my ol’ dad used ter say, ‘there’s some who’ll hold it against you, but they’re not worth bothern’ with." This is true for each one of us because a lot of times, we try to become someone we are not, just to make others like us. Luna Lovegood is another example that its okay to be a little weird and people might make fun of you for it but in the end what matters is the kind of person you are. The important thing is to remember your roots and be true to yourself. It might make some people dislike you but it will make the right people love you! 
• The unsung heroes... The Harry Potter books are filled with examples of how people are misunderstood and that often the person least expected will surprise us. Be it Snape who was hated throughout the books only to show that he was one of the finest men in the Potter universe or Neville who was made out to be a laughingstock but in the end destroys the last Horcrux. The lesson from this is never to judge a person too soon because who knows what their journey has been. 
• The power of love... One thing J.K. Rowling has made very clear is that there is immense power in love. In fact all the major events in her books has an underlying force of love whether it is Lily sacrificing herself for Harry which sets off the entire chain of events or Snape's unrequited love for Lily which drives all his actions or Dumbledore's love for his dead sister which haunts him throughout his life or even Voldemort's (did I just take his name!) love for power which wreaks havoc on the world. What the author tries to show is that love is the ultimate power that can work miracles and those who undermine its value often end up regretting it. 

I could go on and on about this because what the books has taught me is immense. So instead of that I would simply thank J.K. Rowling for creating this series and giving us a magical world with so much to learn. As for the ones who never read this, I hope I have made some of you want to... Happy reading! Mischief Managed...