My Debt To Reading !!

I have always been fond of reading . I started reading  rather  early in life and there was a reason why I did so .It was because of my passion for cricket .I don’t know why I was so passionate about cricket –it was something very abnormal because I used to scan every paper or magazine (those days only one –Sports and Pastime)and  note down some  contents things  in files .I would even cut and paste some of  clippings from newspapers into similar files  .By the time I passed out of school I had nearly a hundred files .Sadly ,termite ate into them in  my ancestral home in Clement Town, and with a big bonfire one day –they were consigned to flames .I  remember  I felt terrible about it .The burning files being consumed by flames is etched sharply in my memory .

Reading about cricket was contagious .It  quickly spread to reading books .I do not call myself a voracious reader –but a steady and meticulous one .I had to read my quota of 10 books or so in a month and it was  a certainity that I would read a minimum of 100 books a year .(the voracious reader would read about 500 books or so a year –I read somewhere that Shashi Tharoor reads about 2 books a day on a average!!).Whatever I read –I reflected upon .I imagined the rolling countryside described in some novels and I also pondered a lot of themes of betrayals and selfishness and about love and lovemaking.  Books cemented my beliefs in right and wrong and made me thoughtful. I lapped up P G Wodehouse ,Enid Blyton ,W E John(Biggles and Gimlett), Shakespeare ,Max Brand (Westerns ),Oliver Stone ,and even Barbara Cartland (I have 4 sisters and they loved the romance depicted in Mills and Boon novels ).I read the great classics and one of them that stood out in my mind was “Wuthering Heights” by Emile Bronte .

My school Librarian gave me Wutheing Heights and “ordered”  me  to read it and review it .I was about 13 years old . “ Don’t think you have write about it while you read it, otherwise you will treat it like homework” he advised .”And don’t worry if you don’t want to write about it –its ok ,just enjoy the book” he said .I took the book home .As luck would have it –the electricity went off  after I had just started reading it .But  I had a kerosene lamp. Just the right atmosphere in which to read this haunting epic of star-crossed lovers. I stayed up till three in the morning to finish the book.The power of the writing was to remain with me for the rest of my life.I continued reading while in College and University and subsequently when I started teaching .Since i read History at College and University ,i read a lot of books on the subject .And Yes -i read Toynbees 12 Volume Classic "A Study of  History"as well !!

Reading was a habit which came to stay and never went away .I still have to read  before I sleep –otherwise I cant fall asleep .!!

 After a gap of 25  years,of  reading Wuthering Heights  in school ,I picked it up again again while I was a Principal in Bhopal.. Would it have the same hold over me? Or had I grown big and old now to NOT be moved by  a tale of love, hate, longing and enchantment? Obviously I had not, for once again I was up all night, gripped by this haunting  tale of  passionate yearning and burning desire played out on the desolate Yorkshire moors. Catherine and Heathcliff yearn for union with each other but it is always denied. Just as Emily Bronte’s yearning for love and fulfilment finds exp­ression in this tale of her own frustration. And with yours and mine at different phases of our life .And as  my train rushed across the Yorkshire Moors en route to Scotland –I once again remembered “Wuthering Heights”.!! After 40 years !!Thats the impact reading books has had on me !!

I haven’t read much in Dubai –and the reason for that is that my rather large and personal library is left behind in India in boxes packed neatly(I am a great one for rereading what I like ) .But whenever I get a chance to read –I do so .My writer friend Meenu Mehrotra presented me her novel –“Sunlit Hearts” .I loved it as I did reading Rajdeep Sardesais book  “2014 –The Elections That Changed India” .I haven’t read books written by my students Anupam Srivastava ,Mahendra Jakher and Ajit Shehrawat .I look forward to doing so in the very near future .

I look forward to going back to reading( about 100 books a year),  as I start my walk back to the pavilion !! I only hope that its not a case of the “Far Pavillions” because I cant wait to get there !( a fabulous book by M M Kaye).And I hope the termites don’t get to my valuable books which are lying packed  in India.That would be the unkindest cut I would have ever got in my life !!