Wonders of Reading

THE DELIGHT CALLED BOOKS
Books are a man’s best friends, is a saying we have all grown up on. The teacher told this in the class and Ma Pa repeated it at home. It probably took us a little of our own lives to realize the truth of the hackneyed idiom. The moment we were old enough to hold a pen in our yet forming thumbs, we scribbled at whatever we could lay our hands on - the wall, the table and important documents. The only books that we possessed when we entered school were those of alphabets and were very dear to us. Coloured pictures and lovely illustrations adorned the glossy pages. As we reached senior classes, syllabus mounted and the books became thicker with the word font becoming smaller. The charm flipped to tension of compulsory reading sessions and we hated them. Our text books were like demons and the thought that kept coming back to the mind was the absurdity of the idiom – Books are the best friends of man – we were more than ready to flip the word to enemy, monster, devil, scarecrow…. Ah! the futile world and its vague claims. And then one fine day, the gates of school library opened, some one gifted the well illustrated Panchtantra ki Kahaniyaan or Noddy on a birthday, suddenly friends brought Amar Chtra Katha comics hidden inside text books, the big book store at the mall seemed attractive, and the world changed.
Let me get personal from here on, my first memories of a book that Papa gifted me are that of the Three Little Pigs. It had huge pages full of attractive animations and a small sentence on each page that took the story forward. I was in KG and read the book with enthusiasm. Today I have grown from Misha to Aym Rand and on the way, passed milestones called the Pink Panther, Dada ka Chashma, Heidi, Arabian Nights, Gulliver’s Travels among may other wonderful experiences. Once caught reading comics of Chacha Chaudhary at age six, a harsh lecture by my father on the value of reading good books had to be faced. Till Class Seven, Enid Blyton was my favourite issued author from the school library. I was again strictly told that I had grown above the toy stories and should be venturing into Tagore and Prem Chand. Ah! What a blow upon a teenager’s inflated ego! I promptly got Prem Ashram issued. The text, the language and the issues were however too complex for my yet immature mind and the book got reissued in my name for three consecutive weeks. Then one Friday night, I read out all the pages mechanically when the librarian had warned me against further reissues. Honestly speaking, it was just an unthinking read with no understanding making its roads to my mind or heart. Books till then used to be a forced endeavor. It is a spectacle, how gradually I started loving and relishing them. Lok Kathayen, Fairy tales, legends, riddles gave way to short stories, classics, real life adventure accounts and then to award winning books. The craze mounted to such an extent that anything from a magazine in a barber shop to an envelope made of newspaper to the dusty library section of old editions of journals seemed adorable.
The habit of reading which my teachers and parents inculcated in me now seems to be the best thing that has happened to my life. While reading Guide, I could relate to each sigh of the protagonist, when experiencing Emma, I felt as if I were the soul in the character. Recently We the Living gave me life-cherishing moments. While I go through books, they take me to a different life. Sometimes the author transportes me to a ball room in medieval England (Pride and Prejudice) and at other moments, I am made to witness riots in Bangladesh (Lajja), I fly to the States (Namesake) in a moment and come to post partition India (Midnight’s Children) the other. The joys of reading can not be traded. One thing that I have come to know however is, it is a marvel reading a good writer but if you come across bad translations of a great work, you might end up losing the charm and interest for ever.
Books, I can vouch with all my life’s experience, are a man’s best friends. The responsibility is upon us to take the youngsters through their journey in a healthy fashion. I am glad, I was guided well.