BOOKS 

They say “When you open a book, you open a new world”. Well, who cannot agree with this? Books have become inevitable to mankind. For most of us, it is part of our everyday lives. To me, books are one of the basic necessities of life and it is also one of my life’s simple pleasures. A book is like a companion, be it a baby’s bedtime story, a toddler’s picture book, a child’s comic book, a teen’s young fiction or our very own academic books. Books are most often our best pastime, or rather a best friend, the only difference is that the latter will never part or walk away from you.

Books have been here for centuries and centuries, without them, today’s human knowledge of our past, ancestors, culture and civilization would have been impossible. Great are those scholars who made scripts of their ideas, inventions, discoveries and imagination. Have you imagined what would have happened if Isaac Newton did not document his study or gravity, or if Hippocrates had not written about his healing methods or if Galileo had not documented his theories on Space?
Well, why did I say that books become your best companion? If I am lonely, I just sit down with a book; suddenly, I feel I am with someone whom I am enjoying my time with. Some days, it is difficult to get to sleep, so I just pick up a book, flip through a couple of pages, a while later you would be fast asleep dreaming of the book you just read. Well, books are not handy only when you are alone or need company. Have you realized that sometimes when you sit down with friends for a nice conversation, you eventually have some topic about a book coming up? You walk up to a salon, and if the wait is long, you just pick up a magazine to entertain you involuntarily. I am sure you would have done the same thing several times at a doctor’s office, at your office cafeteria, waiting for a friend at a coffee shop or even when you are at the airport lounge or air-borne. Can you remember yourself doing this at some stage in your life?
A book imparts knowledge, and not only knowledge but wisdom, wisdom of all kinds…simple letters that matter, instructions to recipes, to theories to stories, to science and technology to engineering, to news to history, to media to entertainment…well the list goes on and on. They say, “The more you read, the more well-read you are”. This simply means that a person gains immense knowledge through books, the more you read, the more exposed you are, your attitude changes, your outlook changes and so does your creativity, imagination and lifestyle. You become an involved member of society. It is impossible to imagine someone who is educated and has not read a book! Some books have changed my life forever; I still remember the first book I was gifted with, it was ‘David Copperfield’ by Charles Dickens. This was an abridged paperback version for kids to read. The book was simply splendid. I was not aware that I had a mind that could imagine things so explicitly of the things I was able to read. I was mesmerized with the story of the life and hurdles of a young boy. I carried a feeling of the book for several years later. This book was the one that triggered my reading habit.

Reading a book 

From then on, I looked forward to my trips to the library with my mom for picking up books. My mother was a voracious reader, too. She used to pick up huge volumes of books, both fiction and non-fiction. She used to tell me some of those stories that she read. She said that today’s movies are made on yesterday’s books. Someone’s invention today was the idea of someone’s yesterday. I was always amazed at how she took care of her collections. She used to proudly present her small collection of books whenever her friends or our relatives come over. She told me several stories of inspiring people, how they started their lives with small things and small ideas that later became famous. I remember my Mom and my Dad passionately discussing some of their latest reads and almost arguing about which one of them was better than the other.

Mom also used to subscribe for some Russian books for us when we were young. These books used to get delivered to her office once a month. My sister and I used to look forward to this day of the month when Mommy would bring the book home. Those were the days when International books were hard to get. I used to feel proud of owning the book. More than reading the book, my sister and I enjoyed looking at the colorful pictures in it, pictures of Russian dance, ice skating, Christmas cookies, decorations and cartoons. By the year end, our collection got bigger and so it was wise to have our own mini library at home. I never got tired of reading all the books again during our summer vacations. This includes our cherished collection of Enid Blyton, adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Tinkles, and numerous collections of the local language.

Woman sitting on a beached boat reading a book

I remember this incident when one day I was so angry with my Mother for the silliest  reason. Well, she says that it was a part of growing up! Somehow to keep up my anger and not wanting to talk to her for the rest of the day, I settled down into my bed with a book in hand. I did not go down for dinner and thought I was punishing my mom by doing it. To my shock, I was reading a short story of an orphan child, a child deprived of food, shelter and more than anything love. Somewhere it said, ‘love of God is love of Mom’. Well, it was like a message God sent. I let go of my false ego and quickly went down and  hugged my Mom. It didn’t seem that she was upset or angry with me. Later that night, I sat wondering if I had not read that book, eventually I would have been sitting there with a false ego and brooding over silly things and making a fool out of myself. It was like I was suddenly enlightened, books for me are in a sense messages sent by God.

Today, I believe my personality, attitude, behavior, knowledge and thinking are built on the books I have read. I am sure I would despise a life without books!