The Chirpy Heidi

Last year, one day, I decided I wanted to read again all those classics I read long time ago, when I was a kid and long forgotten now. It so happened that the next day I walked into a bookstore and they had this huge classic range with a buy two get one free offer. Without thinking much, I bought three and Heidi was the first of the lot I read. 

I felt like a little girl again, reading Heidi. Heidi had that power - to bring you to her age and see things through her eyes! I laughed, I frowned and I was even worried for Heidi every now and then. Heidi taught me quite a lot of life lessons too. There can be no one as innocent and wise as a child and Heidi reaffirms it.

The mountain is described so beautifully that you just want to go there, set up a cabin and spend a part of your life, if not the rest of your life, there - green pasture land, flowers everywhere, the mountain peaks, the rosy snow and the red rocks when evening sets in.

Each and every character in the book is touched by this innocent girl who changes many lives through her interaction. Her grumpy grandfather, more commonly known as Uncle Alp who stayed far away from the others and at odds with God and man was transformed once Heidi started living with him; in fact, one could see the love and concern the grandfather had for his granddaughter too. It was not just the grandfather whom Heidi touched with her charm - Peter the goatherd found company, Peter's grannie looked forward to Heidi's visits and her recital of the hymns which made her feel better, her friend Clara to whose house she resettled in between to give her company loved Heidi because of her chirpiness and found her amusing and of course the Doctor who had come to love Heidi almost like his own child.

What struck me in the whole book was, Heidi was happy wherever she was. And even when she wasn't, she tried to be happy outside so as not to make people around her worried. Also, I loved Mrs. Sesemann, Clara's Grandmamma, in the book. Some of my favourites quotes and gestures in the book was of Grandmamma's and she was a star in her own way in the entire book.  There were so many life lessons in the book that I am sure it will stay with me forever for the truth it imparts.

This book was undoubtedly my best read of 2015. It would have truly been a miss if I hadn't re-read the book because the way you view a book as a kid and as an adult is so different. As a kid, I loved Heidi just because Heidi was a happy go lucky charmer and the book was a happy read. Now, to me, this book is one with wisdom and beauty. And I can't wait for my little boy to grow a little bit so that we could read this together. See you again soon, Heidi!