The habit of reading

What are we as humans if we don't learn from the mistakes that men and women have made in the past?

It is really enthralling to see how people are so distracted these days that they cannot spend time continuously on one activity for long, I have heard enough of arguments that this is the most privileged generation, as they have access to information in their fingertips but that too comes with a lot of distraction, if you lacked resources you lacked distractions too, today I want to answer this fundamental question as to why one should read and how reading will help us in looking at life.

"There was an unexpected freedom in finding out that was one wasn't as important as one had always assumed" , quoted by Chitra Banerjee Divakurani, we all live our lives with perfect sense that it makes to us but have we tried understanding it from someone else shoes, that is what reading has given me, the freedom to think in others shoes, too often we are judgmental about everything and everyone but the characters have given me the choice of seeing everyone with an unprejudiced mind.

It is books that have made me realize that we are not alone in our folly, joys and suffering, it is thus book which stood by me while I waited for someone, It is that one page read that refreshed my mind to look at everything in a complete new way which otherwise I wouldn't. It is really the characters in the books which have made me feel more emotional and it is those characters which have formed an open-minded person.

As Margaret Fuller captured essentially in her quote "Today a reader, tomorrow a leader", I completely agree with her perspective.

I can go on to explain the benefits of reading:

1. Increases your vocabulary.

2. Sharpens your Language skills

3. Gives you a broader perspective in general

4. A better companion in this lonely world

5. Awakens a human within you which you were never aware of!

6. It's a portable magic that one can carry.

7. Helps you stay in touch with the self that you think you really are!

8. Motivates in the times where you lack them, etc.,

Many great men and women who have walked this planet before us have put down their experiences of life in a space called books and it is through books that we know them and their life.

In my opinion the best way to understand a culture is to read the books. They will speak for themselves. I still remember my parents are very ardent readers of a few authors and I had the privilege of fumbling upon few of these works, those books are somewhere responsible for me to write today.

I would outstate myself if I don't owe my gratitude to few of my favorite authors which include R K Narayan, Sidney Sheldon, Anand Neelakantan, Mark Twain, Chitra banerjee Divakurani, S L bairappa, kuvempu and others, Whose works have constantly inspired me to transcend into a reality that is unfamiliar to us, unknowingly they have taken me to a world which is very hard to return from and thus I would like each and everyone of you to visit the world of books.

The best gift you can give to a person (of course apart from time) is a book.

we all shall be remembered through the books, through the stories that we bought into reality and through the history we are yet to create!

Another inanimate power of reading, you live some of those characters as you read that book. Sometimes you incline yourself with the perspective of a protagonist and sometimes you lean in favor of the antagonist. A story can be looked through so many perspectives and that is the skill of the writer and gift for the reader.

You become a part of the book, you relate to some of them, you agree with some and you disagree with some. My emotional balance has increased so much after reading, As you proceed with the journey of reading you realize that if there is something that is worth complaining about, it is lack of time to read all the books that we as a race have created. Someone's imagination takes you to a world full of wonder and wisdom and suddenly you are not the same person as you were! Every book adds up to something in you and that "something" you shall cherish for lifetime.

What remains is this timeless wisdom of books that shall guide us to a better understanding to living well and living for all. Great things have happened to this planet and we all know them through the books, so next time you walk past a book store, don't move on without buying one work. I would like to end simply by saying "The more you read, the more you discover there is more to read", where is your journey starting?

If you had the patience to scroll through and read this, I feel you have a wonderful potential within you to become a reader and the reading never gets old school.