Learning From Poor And Unknown Bibliophiles
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
31 March
2024
"Full Many A Gem Of Purest Ray Serene,
The Dark Unfathom'd Caves Of Ocean Bear;
Full Many A Flower Is Born To Blush Unseen,
And Waste Its Sweetness On The Desert Air"
Thomas Gray, An Elegy Written In A Church
Courtyard
------
"Ameeron Ko Apne Gharon Mein Kitabein
Rakhne Aur Sajane Ka Bada Shauq Hota Hai. Ve Kitabein Khareedte Hain Dikhave Ke
Liye. Par Ek Muflis Ko Agar Padhne Ka Shauq Ho Toh Woh Sadak Pe Gire Akhbaar Ke
Phate Panne Ko Bhi Uthakar Padhta Hai...."
Bano Qudsia, Pakistani novelist and short story writer
(Rich and affluent people often buy books and
flaunt them at their homes. But a poor man, if he's interested in reading, will
pick up even a torn page of a newspaper and read it)
"A number of times, ordinary, unnamed and
casual bibliophiles taught me much more than what my learned and acclaimed
university professors did (teach)."
Jose Saramago, Portuguese Nobel laureate in
Literature, 1998
I used to
see Arif in a torn shirt, who would be engrossed in books at a book shop in
Aurangabad (Maharashtra), a city I frequently go to. I later came to know that
he was too poor to buy books and magazines. But the considerate owner of the
book store, Mr Maqbool Sharif, allowed him to pick up a few books and magazines
and read there.
Occasionally,
he would be engaged in an animated discussion with that indomitable bibliophile.
Someone
told me that even the book shop owner was so poor that he couldn't finish his
education but his desire to read and gain knowledge remained undiminished. He
therefore, opened a book shop and would interact with his customers regarding
the books, writers, themes and plots.
This
intrigued me very much and I also started visiting his shop and interacting
with him. The book shop owner never told any reader as to why s/he was flipping
through books and magazines and not even buying a newspaper? This is indeed
unheard-of nowadays.
Wherever I
have been to in India, I have seldom come across people whose fondness for books can be compared with that
of this man in Aurangabad. His love for books and kind-hearted nature reminded
me of the owner of an exiguous book store on Calcutta's famed college street.
His shop was so small that he could hardly sit there. But his knowledge about
books was astounding.
Unlike the
name-droppers you come across often in life, this man not just read books, but
he could analyse them as well. His knowledge about cinema was incredible and
that man, who couldn't even complete his BA in English literature, told me
point blank that Uttam Kumar was over-hyped and that Soumitra Chatterjee was a
far better actor than Uttam. The way he analysed Soumitra's skills in
histrionics left me spellbound. No critic of modern Bengali cinema has been
able to vivisect the different and distinct styles of Uttam and Soumitra and
place the latter over the former.
That poor
book shop owner gave me some rare inputs and insights into Nazrul Islam's
poetry, which I incorporated in one of my articles for a poetry journal. The
way he enumerated the perceived obscenity in D H Lawrence and Emile Zola's
novels, especially 'Nana', I felt a kind of inferiority complex for not knowing
even an iota of it. He argued cogently and convinced me, why the legendary Sir
Laurence Olivier was the best thespian on stage and marquee. He descanted upon
modern American poetry, describing Ezra Pound and T S Eliot's superlative
contributions to it. He also compared Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman's
prose and poetry styles.
I wonder,
why don't we get to see the likes of these people, who know much more than all
the 'highly educated scholars' with (dubious) Doctorates and Post Doctorates
under their belts? Why can't they teach at colleges and universities, which
unfortunately ask for your academic credentials and bogus degrees and
certificates?
Jawaharlal
Nehru had to relax all the stupid restrictions to accommodate middle school
passed polymath and polyglot Rahul Sankrityayan (Kedarnath Pandey) and UGC
shelved all rules and regulations to appoint ' just a B A' passed Ramdhari
Singh 'Dinkar' as the V C of Bhagalpur University and conferred LLD degree on
him. When will such relaxations come to the rescue of these forgotten
bibliophiles and truly knowledgeable people? If they become teachers and
professors, the quality of education in India will witness a drastic upsurge.
Alas, who cares in this age of rank mediocrity?
----
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/poor-unknown-bibliophiles/d/132045