Dehradun, Oct. 19 -- The Books from My Shelves

[ Principal, Welham Girls' School ]

There are books that we read, books that we remember, and then there are books that somehow become part of us. They acquire the texture of particular years, particular people, classrooms and places.

If I look at the books on my shelves, I realise that they are less a collection of favourites than a group of friends I have met along the way. They speak, in different voices, about courage and conformity, childhood and memory, love and loss, injustice and freedom. And perhaps most importantly for me, they are books that urge me to look more closely at people and the world around us.

Having spent nearly three decades at Welham Girls' School, I suppose I hav...