“There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book. —Frank Serafini”
We are living in quite an interesting time. It’s a time of transition, commotion, confusion and creativity. It’s a time of enormously evolving technology and a sea change in lifestyle. Gone are the days when elders would read for hours and complete a volume of say 900 pages in a few days. Fortunate are the ones who get to live around someone who can boast of having read say complete Dickens, complete Meghani, complete Shakespeare, or complete R.K. Narayana. The Digital Native generation would find it unbelievable as they live in seconds and minutes, not in days and months.
However, this write up by no means, intends to go on the track of a self-complacent nostalgia trip of “Woh bhi kya din the” type. Kids today have a plethora of options for academics, aesthetics, sports, entertainment and so on. Phones, watches, switchboards and even cities (and sometimes people also) are getting SMARTER nowadays…!!! But what if they can get the best of both worlds? So, who can make it happen?
Amongst the other stakeholders; parents, family, teachers ought to play a major role in the said process. Amidst the hullabaloo of complaints that the kids don’t read and they are addicted to social media and smartphones, there are some torchbearers who still keep the I WILL DO MY BIT approach.
Countryside International School, Surat is, I think, one such institute. Last saturday I got an opportunity to attend an aesthetic event there. The school organized a talk on the magic of reading by my favorite thinker and writer these day Mr. Raj Goswami. Netizens wouldn’t need his introduction. I have seen his Morning Musings being shared on FB & Whatsapp status daily. Many of us prefer to kickstart their days by these enriching and thought-provoking posts. A renowned columnist and translator Raj sir presented to us a panoramic view of his journey of reading and writing.
His talk commenced with a journey down the memory lane. He belonged to a humble, rather marginalized social background. As a secluded, neglected child in society, he preferred to shrink his senses and get lost in his inner world. Books helped him in doing this. At the age of 10, he stepped into the wonderland of books. He also recalled the words from the memoirs of Sartre and I could find it identical as I was also one such odd man out in my school-life.
However, this social non-existence was a blessing in disguise for Raj sir as he slowly turned into a voracious reader which led him to make a shining career as a writer. He explained that learning any language or reading books from various languages and regions not just enriches us but also makes us more humane, it sensitizes us and it expands the horizons of our thinking. It makes us humble by making us realize the limitations of our knowledge.
Reading and writing both are gymnastics for the brain. Just as body muscles need some sort of exercise everyday, so is the case with the neurons of the brain. Reading, if I can say so, prevents aging of the brain. On being asked about his FB series of Morning Musings, he said that it is a sort of riyaz/net practice/rehearsal for him. Just like meditation, practice in reading and writing helps you in organizing your thoughts. The speaker elucidated his point with an analogy of a traffic police officer on a hectic, crowded traffic signal. One’s role is to regulate and manage his thoughts just as a traffic police officer does but instead we get involved and swayed away in the torrential traffic of our random thoughts.
Social media and smart technology has made us more impatient. We the digital migrants have witnessed the time when a tiny file would take hours to get downloaded but SPEED is the key word in the 5G era.
He also shared his experience of translating Yual Noah Haraari and the challenges he faced during the process. In the Q & A session, he opined on the needless insistence for puritanism of language. One of the key reasons why English has become so globally accepted is that it is a highly lucid and accepting language. It has received words from around the globe and still hundreds of new words are added to the corpus of English language every year. Answering my request to suggest some must read titles, he shared a list of books really worth reading in Hindi. Even I got an opportunity to interact with the audience during and after the session. It was quite an interesting and interactive event.
What I liked the most about this school is their genuine,. Substantial and innovative efforts of orienting their students towards reading. Credit goes to the management, the principal Dr. Sanjay Mehta and his army of dynamic teachers. I was thrilled to know that as many as 17 students of the school got their books published and they are also available for sale on online platforms. Isn’t this amazing?
I must end it with a note of gratitude to the speaker Raj Goswami sir for his satiating talk and the school for organizing such an inspiring event. I recall the immortal words from Shakespere’s Hamlet:-
Hamlet is reading a book.
Polonius: What do you read my Lord?
Hamlet: Words, words. words.
