Reading Is a Transforming Process; It Humanises Humans
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
23 April
2024
Be-Raunaq Hai Zindagi Us Ki
Kitabon Se Nahin Dosti Jis Ki
-----
Ibtida Ye Hai Ki Main Tha Aur Daava Ilm Ka
Intiha Ye Hai Ki Iss Daave Pe Sharmaya Bahut
Jagan Nath Azad
In the beginning, I was there with a (false and
audacious) claim to knowledge/ Towards the fag-end of life, I'm terribly
ashamed (to have made such a claim)
April
23rd World Book and Copyright Day
-----
On The
World Book and Copyright Day, April 23, seeing an endless treasure-trove of
books and volumes, one's reminded of Jagan Nath Azad's aforementioned couplet
and bemoans, alas, I know so little!
By the way,
23 April is a symbolic date in world literature. It is the date on which
several prominent authors, William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca
Garcilaso de la Vega all died. This date was a natural choice for UNESCO's
General Conference, held in Paris in 1995, to pay a world-wide tribute to books
and authors on this date, encouraging everyone to access books.
Reading has
no substitute. The Quran begins with the Arabic word Iqra (Read). Books,
not holy books, have enriched the world, emancipated humans and ennobled minds.
"I read and write even with one eye and an impaired vision because I'll
cease to exist if I don't read," Salman Rushdie recently said in an
interview to The NY Times.
Fortunate
are those who're inclined towards books right from their childhood. This habit
stays till the end. But most of the people have to cultivate this habit of
reading. To quote Tom Altar (yes, he was an Urdu poet and spoke impeccable
Urdu), "Kitaab Bhale Hi Na Padho, Chhookar Toh Dekho/ Ik Na Ik Din
Muhabbat Ho Jayegi" (No matter if you don't read, at least, touch a
book/ One day, you may fall in love with it) or Nazar Shikarpuri, "Kitab
Haath Mein Liye Phira Karo/ Shayad Kisi Din Padhne Bhi Lag Jaao"
(Carry a book all the time even if you don't read/ No wonder, if one day, you
start reading!). The critics of reading may say that reading is escapism: Naakaam
Koshish Ki Gham-E-Zindagi Ko Bhoolne Ki/ Bazaar Se Kitab Khareed Laaya Athanni
Ki (In order to forget the sufferings of life/ I bought a book from the
market for fifty paise).
Those who
dislike reading, often quote this couplet in their defence but they forget that
a cheap book will also have contents worth fifty paise! Read a good book and
your life will undergo a sea-change.
So much has
been written in so many languages that even a diehard bibliophile cannot read
more than one percent. A drop of ink may make a million think. Even if you
don't have time and inclination to read the Bard of Avon's oeuvre in archaic
English, read the siblings Charles and Mary Lamb's Shakespeare Simplified
(Tales from Shakespeare) intended 'for the use of young persons.' You'll be
transported to a different realm.
Read
Jalaluddin Rumi's one book, or at least one poem, attentively, wisdom is bound
to descend on the reader. Read Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His magic realism will
cast a magical spell on you. His One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the
Time of Cholera will revolutionise your thinking. Reading humanises us because
it's a transforming process. To read is to feed; feed the mind. Of late, we've
become violent and cantankerous because we've stopped reading. Let alone
reading a book, most of us, don't even subscribe to a newspaper. Instead, what
we read is sheer garbage on the social media, couched in grammarless language.
This is pathetic, to say the least.
Remember,
Gulzar Dehlavi's famous couplet, "Be-Raunaq Hai Zindagi Us Ki / Kitabon
Se Nahin Dosti Jis Ki" (Life is lacklustre who's not friends with
books). So, befriend books. They'll never let you down.
----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/reading-transforming-humanises-humans/d/132184
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