This hard bound book of 78 pages was published in 1967. We found it in Anjali's grandmother's collection of books and what struck me immediately was that it was a gift from a school girl from Poona to her dear friend Meena (Meenakshi Sachdev). It brought back all the memories of how much thought, care and love would go into our friendships and gifts in those days when it was really difficult to stay in touch unlike these days when you can constantly be in touch on phone or social media. One can feel the emotion in that note Helen has penned to Meena and one only hopes they are well and that their friendship has lived on and got stronger. I can imagine the trouble Helen would have gone to get this book, and it does not look like some cheap book either. Another interesting thing about this book is that it has an Afterword by Auden. How one decides that it should be a 'Foreword' or an 'Afterword' is something I would like to know. Personally I am not a fan of either.
The Golden Key is about a young boy who lives close to a rainbow and who is told by his granny that there is a golden key at the end of the rainbow which leads to many good things. So the young lad sets out and in the course of his journey meets a girl Tangle who also helps him in his search for the thing to unlock with the golden key. They get separated and then join up together in the end and well, alls well and it ends well. During the course of their travels they go under the sea, meet old men of the sea, the earth and the fire and well all sorts of fantastic stuff happens.
Slim at 78 pages. But the real story is of Helen and Meena. Stories everywhere like our friend Vikram Sridhar said.
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