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Blogs by Leslie Musoko
Rebel in disguise... 6/25/2010 5:24:24 PM
By the time I was sixteen reading had become one of my favorite past times in life. I think I must have completed my first story when I hit six. With the help of my mum I had read through the simple bed time stories that all children warm to and my first book was in the bag. By the time I was sixteen reading had become one of my favorite past times in life. I think I must have completed my first story when I hit six. With the help of my mum I had read through the simple bed time stories that all children warm to and my first book was in the bag. Four years later I remember this one book I read, it was one of those books that cataloged fairy tales. It had about twenty of them, of non stop action from Hansel and Gratel to Rapunzel and Snow white and the seven dwarfs. I remember often being shouted at to turn off the lights in my room, yet I would break the rules and read with a candle that glowed in the darkness as I plowed through story after story. Eventually having read through all the stories I began seeking more to stimulate my imagination. I found those times fascinating as I moved on from the fairy tale world to that of hard core action and adventure. I took on books from Ian Fleming, Wilbur Smith and James Hadley Chase. I was moving up the ranks and needed better challenges and more scope. I needed my heroes to come up against all odds and seek success where none was forth coming. I did not necessarily think that all books had to have a happy ending. I had sampled Barbara Cartland and the Mills and Boons series that my sister read endlessly and even though I admired their sense of romance and adventure they lacked the stimulus that I needed for were I thought I was headed. I could hardly call myself a hero in any of these novels because most of them led a secure life. I always knew that the end was just a matter of time away to reveal the hero conquering the heart of the girl.
Then came the Robert Ludlum novels. Here I made history for myself buying all his books and reading as though there was no tomorrow. I even fell back in my school work as I found that the biology and chemistry lessons that one suffered strenuously to follow in class could not match the adventure and poise that was given to me in these books. However it was the time in school when I was maturing into a world where one was supposed to think like adults and be like an adult. Yet in this phase of our lives what came with that responsibility was the need to have a nick name that matched ones ability to reproduce that which was beyond all men. It was expected of me to have the best nickname since I read the most number of books but still at sixteen I had yet to find that name which I could cling on to. I had become fussy, not wanting to settle for any hero as there were so many and plenty to choose from. It was uncool to be called the obvious as one knew that these names were common amongst many. Some of my friends settled for footballers names like Mario Kempes and Socrates which was quite creative at the time yet in all my reading I could not find that hero that was exciting and at the same time intriguing to give me the depth and aptitude that would push me beyond others.
Our town had one great book shop, Pressbook, which strewed over its shelves, books from abroad some from neighboring countries such as Nigeria and others beyond the continent. One day I set out as was customary over every two week period to buy myself another novel with the little money I had managed to swindle from my dad. After scanning through numerous novels for a while I came across Chances by Jacky Collins, a writer that I had never come across before and immediately I was captivated. My search had been going on for months and even the African authors had failed to give me a name that could match my prowess in school. Suddenly I was faced with a writer who broke all the rules and plunged into scenes of mayhem and for the first time I wondered what it really was like being as wild and free as she portrayed her hero to be. In the book Gino Santangelo’s life started out barren of the virtues of life as he was suffocated by poverty and hardship. This was ideal for me as I always liked my heroes to succeed from the depths of destitute. I admired the way in which his life had led him from the poorest parts of Italy into Europe and then eventually into the US were he became a gangster.
After reading through the book for a week I knew this was the nick name that I wanted. I wanted to be called Gino Santangelo and immediately set about my task at convincing the rest of my friends of this nick name. They loved it immediately and from henceforth I was called Santangelo every where I went to in town. I brought to life Jacky Collins novel giving it to all my friends to read and for them to understand how one man’s life could move from a tortured youth into wealth just by sheer determination and strength of will. In this manner I set about living my life and trying to be my hero. I out thought most people easily as I engineered most of the thoughts that Gino had and the world erupted around me as I was rewarded with recognition for my ideas. I became the class prefect in the final year electing myself to the position and even scoring the grades that mattered. This was worthy of my nickname as in the book Gino was far cleverer than anyone he could come across. In this manner I set myself up for some of the adventures that would follow in life. I knew that most of them could not be garnered in my youth because of my environment as the people I associated with did not have the means to make this possible. However late at night and deep in the realms of my imagination I waited for my time and the right place. If Gino was capable of doing something then I too could do it. I could start out as Gino and discover what he had seen. It never crossed my mind back then that any thing that he had done could be considered morally incorrect or wrong to society. What was important to me was fulfilling a dream to the fullest and living without the boundaries that man had set. I was a rebel and one that had been spawn from a mystery of creation and like all rebels I searched for other denizens from my creation, if Gino found his in Europe then so would I.
