Sunday, December 20, 2009

Me,I like Reading !

There are things,of various sorts and of plethora of class,which all sane humans love to do and have a penchant for.May it be Rambling, Biking, Gadabouts,Lewd acts,sleeping etc for the males and tittle-tattling, shopping,embracing the idiot-box etc for the towards-extinction gender.But leaving aside the interests of others,permit me talk about myself.

Me,I like Reading.Reading the best-sellers novels.Novels that are intricate.
Well,There is an outre panache linked with books.Let it be Fiction or Non-Fiction coz when you love something you love the whole macrocosm and not any specific class of it.Though I personally feel that reading fiction novel do not let you gain
anything on the knowledge front.You read it and you dispose it.While a non-fiction novel installs itself at a pedagogic platform.It gives an insight,ask for some more space in your memory-palace and turns the page by transmogrifying voidness into richness as far as knowledge is concerned.So if you love phantasm,get a fiction novel but if you embrace something real,try a non-fiction novel.

My love for novels instigated with Harry Potter series when I was in,I suppose,in Class 8th.The world of witches,hags, brooms,Snitches,Horcrux and Avada-kedavra turned me on.This infact is a fact that unreal things attract you first! Then came Five-Point Someone,a Chetan Bhagat copyright that taught about IIT Delhi,Hari and Neha,Fraternity and all.I still have a conviction that that was a ubercool novel.Until now I didnt know what was the difference between Fiction and Non-fiction novel.But then TOI enlisted The Ignited Minds to one of the best Non-Fiction novel and so I scuttled to get a copy.I would say that getting real is really difficult.I found it banal,teaching what should we do and what not to keep India running etc.Therefore Fiction Redux! Came Jeffrey Archer with his Prisoner of Birth.Loved it!Then the ratings of Ahmedabad Times rated Robin Sharma's The Monk who sold his Ferrari snatching the top cliff.Again a paroxysm caused me to buy the book.Once again theoretical lectures,Life,Deaths,Success,Happiness and all.I made my mind that Non-Fiction is not my cup of tea and decided to leave it for ever.

I reached college.The Library was awesome but only for geeks.No Novels ! No Fiction !But then I found a copy of Business Legends that though belonged to the blacklisted list of Non-Fiction Novels but as it was on Business world I took it for I have a love for BSE,Ambani,Tata,Annual Reports,Profits etc.Amazed ! Excited ! Resonance ! Completely Loved it.I was wrong about that cup of tea.I rummaged for more Non-Fiction novels thereafter and got hold of Freedom at Midnight, You Can Win,India
Unbound etc.Absolutely Superb !After I really digged into Non-Fiction, I pondered that Fiction though exciting is Facade.It gives you nothing except an outstanding story that can hardly occur in the real world.While,on the other side,you get fringe
benefits like Facts,Education,Insights,Motivation,Knowledge with a non-fiction novel.

After a year of so,I heard about Salman Rushdie,A Fiction NRI Writer who was bestowed with the Best of Booker for his Midnight's Children.Hence after completing The White Tiger,I bought -'The Enchantress of Florence' as I didn't get the midnight's novel at the store.Absolutely Stunning.Such magnificent puns.Such grandiose personifications.Such Vocab-Bank.Such intricacies involved,I adulated Salman Sir.And the king of Labyrinth was still waiting-Midnight's Children! After much hardship,I got hold of the coveted novel.Started off and I found myself in another world.In Kashmir with Shikara's where Adam Aziz was ambulating and Kolynos Kids and Pakistan,India and China and Spitoons and pepperpots and Bombay and Lastly Salim.A true Sui generis novel.And also the longest time consuming novel thanks to its complexities.I am still reading it and I love every line of it.Infact such is the love that I do not wish to finish it off !

I have a long list of Novels I am waiting to read ranging from Philosophical Fountainhead to the Nobel Laureate's The Argumentative Indian.And I wish if everyone can develop this ritual as atleast its better than wasting time gossiping,rambling,watching fatuous movies,surfing stupid sites etc coz after all Time is a Virtue !

Happy Reading ! :)