~ A World of Books ~

 “Books are a man’s best friend.” – The saying has been quite right in all its novelty – be it when one is sitting idle engrossed in his own world of illusion or one has to kill time by means of speaking to someone but has no one around him to speak.

My tryst with words and alphabets started long back – about two decades ago when out of inquisition I started to read about fictional and real stories about great characters of this world. What started as a past time activity soon became a regular feature and still continues after many passing years.Books have been my best compatriots and friends and they have surely given me a meaning to life – the varied thoughts and seclusion amongst the everyday hush-hush of life. They take you to a pedestal of alternative thinking- a world of fiction - of unreal imagination and sometime towards intuitiveness of expression.

One of the key figures who has been instrumental in showering his magnanimity of book reading is my old pal – Mahesh, the guy who is a pavement dweller and has been into the old book selling and renting business in mart near my place.

My love for a pile of neatly arranged books has been instigated by Mahesh about almost two and half decades ago – whilst wandering in the market, I happened to get a call from behind in a mild tone “ Sir – do you read books?, I have bought some new ones – do you like to try one?.” The depth of his calling was intriguing for me to buy my first book in life “The Story of My Experiments with Truth” – An autobiographical account of the Mahatma. Though it took more than a month to finish the work of Mr Gandhi, it instilled me with patience and a sense of conviction to finish the voluminous novels with passage of time. Post this, the relationship with books got enhanced day by day and the journey to world of anecdotes, biographies, autobiographies, spiritual readings began and till date it is in its usual best.

Many great masters and personalities have given us the gift of their presence on earth by way of their sayings and observations, their experiences which has been converted to works of literary jottings. Reading through their experiences of life gives you prudence in day to day living.

Books give us insights to decipher the world of illusion with a different perspective altogether – though for many, reading habit is considered synonymous with a fallacy of ‘time pass’ but I think otherwise. Getting your hands on good works of literature, autobiographical and biographical accounts, spirituality (or any of your liking) gives you sense of vision and perception about a particular person – Surely it increases your decree of imagination and thought – besides strongly adding to your day to day vocab. Your way of expression and a sense of judgement about a situation or a parody is the next best thing which happens whilst you complete a book. The best thing which book reading has taught me is the virtue of ‘Patience’ juxtaposing with contemplation of thoughts which your mind generates.

The quote - “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” By Joseph Brodsky holds true, more so at this time of home-sitting and killing time for nothing.

Today, as I write this piece of my story about my inducement towards a world of Books , I profusely thank my dear friend ‘Mahesh’ for the famous ‘Calling’ decades back , which might have been out of providence which I now think had to be at the right place and at the right time for me - the Chosen one- though the greatest irony in the situation is that Mahesh himself is not an avid reader!