A Sixty-Four-Dollar-Question or Is it???.. Part--I

Until my 7th grade, I stayed in relatively small cities and had to do my education in relatively small schools. Hence, the exposure and the competitive nature wasnt present in me (except ofcourse sports) especially in studies. Things changed impromptu after I moved to Chennai during my eight grade.
I had to compete with really talented people on all skills. My close friends talked about things that I never understood sometimes and they seemed to be of a different class altogether. They were also a big fan of reading novels like hardy boys,three investigators etc. Tempted by their recommendation, and my curiousity as well, I started to read my first novel. My english skills was pretty much below average and I had to refer to dictionary more often than not to finish each page of the novel.
It took me atleast a week to finish a 200 page novel. But then, slowly my vocabulary improved and was able to increase the pace of my reading as well. We would discuss the happenings and try to predict the villain in the novel during breaks and lunch time at school.Some people in my class even thought that we were crazy.This is when I became big fan of mystery, suspense, murder and thriller stories. I would only read archies or tin tin or other comics, if a particular book i am looking for isnt available or checked out. My pace was so high later on that I easily surpassed a book a day and more importantly without referring to dictionary. After I reached 10th grade, because of pressure in studies, I completely stopped reading novels and ever since, my penchant for reading novels decreased dramatically. My folks were delighted that it was only spasmodic and would not affect what one could call as "crucial phase of ones career".
However my fondness towards mystery,suspense,thrillers never diminished and even though I couldnt spend time reading novels, I would watch movies of that genre to satisfy my quest whenever I had a chance. Remember in those times, it is a luxury if you have a VCR to watch movies and if we did happen to rent one, my folks wouldnt agree for these types of movies. So my frequency wasnt obviously that high. It is only after my exodus to U.S, that I had access to all sorts of stuff and could actually awaken my passion for watching mystery movies.