Long before I read comics, my father bought me a second-hand copy of an illustrated book from one of the numerous second-hand bookstores in Mumbai at the time. They were treasure troves. The book was Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain w illustrations by Norman Rockwell.

I spent hours looking at this particular illustration. I don't know why. It's absolutely etched into my memory now. I can recall details from it even after years of not having seen it.

In some ways my love of comics and illustrated stories probably all stems from this one book. By the time I was a teenager, I think it had been read so many times the spine was falling apart. Covers were cracked and weathered.

We routinely gave away books to libraries or donated to schools. But this one I kept. Until there was bad flood in the early 2000s in Mumbai. The house was under a few feet of water and the book was well and truly ruined. Part of me still mourns for it.

Another part of me is probably still just trying to recreate the magical influence this book had on me with all the work that I do.