Sugar, Spice and Everything nice! 🌻
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” ~ George R.R. Martin.
Recently I was confronted with a question. A question that gave me a shiver all the way down my spine!
Why do you read?
This question was put forward by an old gentlemen, of equitable knowledge, reasoning and experience, who later remarked that, “ the issue with your generation is that you have all the accessibility to read, yet nothing accessible that can come across as beneficial is what you read!”
To my surprise and his antiquity, if I were to reply to his question debatably I would come across as mean and obnoxiously rude, yet I had so many valid points to counter his enquiry .
As a matter of choice, I simply chose to leave the place and the gentlemen with a made-up smile and his grotesque thought!
My recent visit, in fact the only visit I was able to make to my favourite bookstore but made me ponder upon this issue. Why in fact do I read? What is so amusing?
Book after Book.
Piles of books, with little space to keep them in my room, the study or the shelf in the lobby!
In fact, its like having a mini Bookstore cum Library to myself! Is it some psychological instinct or an obsession ? I can’t name it but it is what is or perhaps it’s the satisfaction of skimming through the pages of a story written about or person you’d never meet or a person who’s exactly like your next door neighbour, you have little or no knowledge about.
My recent visit to my favourite book store in a city that is anything but a stranger to me, kicked endorphins in my system. Once again I was but elated to be in a place, I could partially call my second home…
As I strolled through the alleys of this store, I paused in every section from fiction, history, Punjab culture and heritage, geographical non-fiction, biographies etc; my fingers but lightly brushed through the spine of these books, reading through the titles, my eyes gazing at the different colours that were around me and my senses inhaling the fragrance of parchment paper and quiet as it may seem, if you chose to listen attentively, you’d hear all the stories that are buried in covers of paperback and hardcopy!
In this moment I felt infinite. ♾️
Chandigarh is not a place where one could openly speak or express their views . People are still conservative here as compared to the upbeat metropolitan cities, yet as many times as I have visited this bookstore, it’s slowly drawn me to a gaze of thoughtful and fiery energy somewhere lost in places that aren’t known to my beloved and as a matter of fact literature and law go hand in hand!
https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/panorama/the-dichotomy-of-law-and-literature-1166262.html