Harry Potter, Hari da Puttar or Hariya Puttar, call it by different names, the phenomenon remains as big as ever and growing still!
I have been one of those people who were introduced to the books more than a decade ago, fell in love, grudgingly watched the movies, criticizing and enjoying them at the same time, waited with baited breath for the last book, shed copious tears when it got over, rediscovered the same excitement with the coming of the last movie and finally was devastated when that too got over.
Yes, an era has got over for the likes of me, there will be no more waiting, no more anticipation, no hope, no dreams...in other words we have finally reached the stage where we need to come out of our beautiful fantasy land, the beautiful world created by J K Rowling where we could always lose ourselves when life became too much. Yes, we have finally grown up. The time has come for us to face the reality of a world filled with harshness, hatred, corruption, war. And there wont be any "chosen one" to save the world from these things. There wont be any Dumbledore to explain things correctly for us using his clever guesses. We are on our own now, with the responsibility of making our own intelligent guesses.
It has been a wonderful adventure for us, especially here in India. Through these books we got a glimpse of what magic means in the western world. It has united us with the children all over the world in experiencing the same kind of emotions, drama and a common sink for all our love. In a world divided and marred with crimes, racism and terror we found a world where we could become unaffected by these things, oblivious and lost in our own Narnia, where centaurs where more intelligent than humans, where "wingardium leviosa" was more literally relevant than all the works of shakespeare put together, where we could get rid of all our fears with laughter and the ridiculous spell "riddikulus".
Yet there is a feeling that all is not over yet. Something remains to be discovered, some idea that had taken seed in someones imagination years ago needs to be validated. But we ask ourselves, what else is there? The books have long been out, with no promise of an eighth one, the movies watched and then rewatched. What can be more than these? What more magic has Rowling in store for us?
The answer is Pottermore.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Pottermore is a website that will "let you experience some of the fun of living in the world of Harry Potter"
So what is Pottermore? Well, its not a site to just sell e-books and audio books. It will also provide 18,000 words of additional content including background details and settings. Other than this, it includes challenges, a virtual reading experience, visiting diagon alley, getting sorted into houses and much more.
Its not another Harry Potter book, it might not give us the satisfaction of watching out\r favourite characters acting out the scenes we always had to imagine on screen, but its still something more than the oblivion that millions of us had been doomed to.
I don't know about others but I for one am taking the plunge again, I will keep on grasping whatever magic comes in my way...I guess there are still miles for me to go before giving up...
Pottermore..here I come...