Haven’t read a book in a long time. I mean a real book – the one in
paper with the smell of the printed pages. It is nostalgic, it is beautiful, it
is the best feeling in the world. They transport me to a different world – a world
of possibilities where I can be whatever I want to be, go wherever I want to go.
Yes, an ebook can do that too but for me, it does not have that magic. Turning
the pages with anticipation, taking in the smell of the pages...a mobile,
kindle, tab or laptop can never give me that.
During this time of the year - when it is cold outside but warmed up
by the sun during daytime, there is a smell of fog and the blooming flowers of Ber
(Indian Jujube) - I miss my books more. Those school years when the exams are
over and no worries about studying, the results won’t be out in another one
month so no tension there and I would be sitting in the sun whole day till sun
down with the novels, short stories and poetry books, that was the only time of the year when I could sit with
my story books whole day and my parents won’t say a word. I would borrow books
from relatives, from neighbors and voraciously gorge on them. During my B.Sc.
days, I would have those days sometimes but never since I joined masters. But still, every year as December approaches, the
leaves start getting sparse in the trees, migratory birds starts flying around,
the sun gets mellow, the fog starts to linger into the morning hours, all I
want is to go back to those days.
On a similar but different note, I feel books make us aware – of ourselves,
of others. They make us receptive, they make us listen and not just hear, see
and not just stare. Books make us think about ourselves, about the world, why
we are here. They give us a purpose in life. The collective intelligence of
human kind is all there. It makes us evolve psychologically; inspire us to
leave a legacy behind. My favorite teacher once told me, “Written words are
what will be left behind you after you are gone, it will make you immortal and
in the best possible way”. I got my purpose of life from the books I read. I am
trying to be a better human being everyday because of the books I read. Another
teacher of mine told me when I was in the 6th standard, “A bee and a
spider both take up pollens from flowers – one makes honey and one makes poison.
It’s same for a book and its reader. How you interpret and use the knowledge is
completely on you”. I don’t know how much scientifically correct that is, but
the essence is what changed a part of me. He was a very well read man. He is
unfortunately no more but what he said to me will be there forever. That is
what books do. They educate us, make us live forever in our own little way.
Changing the way someone looks at the world, making them better human beings is
the best we can do in life. And books help us do that.
To me, being well read is a good thing. But I feel I am loosing that
habit too. These days, movies and series have taken over. Some of my friends argue, “When a Harry Potter movie can be watched in three hours maximum, why
waste three days on reading the book? It saves time and these days time is
essence.” Strong logic. But to me, they
are fast food. They might save money and time but it’s not healthy in the long
run. It creates a literary epidemic. They might give us the same moral of the
story but those beautiful strings of thoughts that express those morals can
never be expressed in a movie. When we imagine the written words in our minds,
it is our own and always I find is much better than someone else’s imagination
that they put in movies. At least, Aragorn was much more handsome in my imagination
(No offense to Viggo Mortensen. He is still the best) and so was Kakababu (again, no offense to Prosenjit
Chatterjee)!! And most importantly, like slow food is always good for health of the stomach for the long haul, books are good for intellectual health of the mind.
And that’s why it makes me sad to see the school going kids today so
engrossed in their text books that they don’t have time to read anything else.
They have much higher IQ than what I had in that age and can grasp a lot more
but have no time to be philosophical. They have to continuously input data in
their brains to fare well in the rat race, to be better than the others. I am
not criticizing anything. I know how hard it is to make a living these days. I
am more or less of the same generation and do understand how tough
the competition is. But sometimes I wonder, is that all it is to life? We fight
tooth and nail to be an well oiled machine. I sometimes think may be if I had
spent less times reading story books and more on text books, I would have done
better. But that’s not regret, just a passing thought. I had friends with very
good results and were very well read. It’s all about time management and
guidance. Very few people tell the kids to read a story unless it is for an
assignment or is included in the syllabus. They read novels included in
syllabus not to enjoy but to score better. I didn’t start reading by myself. A neighborhood grandmother of mine inspired me. She would let me borrow books
from her and that’s how I started getting interested. From there I never
stopped. And I would be forever grateful to her for that.
I am not saying I am a well read person. What I have read in all
these years of my life might be a drop in the ocean of literary works around the
world, may be less than that. But what I am trying to say is, it is a very good
feeling. Every time we read a book, our mind expands a little, we know a little
bit more and be a little bit better than before. Good books build bridges to
unknown worlds and realms. And sometimes, they just become the best part of our
lives.
Just a thought :)
