The Reading Challenge

I enjoyed the 52 week Reading Challenge. It spurred me on to read more books and write more blogs and most of them are - you've guessed right -about books and reading. They have taken the place of friends and family! When I travel, it is through their pages I walk, when I cry, it's overwhelmed by what I read! I spend all my time reading books just as I used to when I was a girl. But these days, they are accompanied with pangs of guilt because I set aside my chores and even chatting with friends and family. Those days, my mother took care of it all.

The Reading Challenge set me on a reading spree. Every night, I made it a point to read a few pages. It left me happy but wanting for more. This probably had to do a lot with the titles I chose. As the days progressed, I found myself getting more and more fussy. If a book did not reach out to me, I would turn the pages so slowly, that I was afraid I'd lose the link and the interest. Worse was the sense of having been abandoned. By the book I had chosen. So now, I decided to choose wisely or more aptly, with a little more fuss.

Read the books that make you happy.

I have come to believe that books come into our lives with a purpose. It's not as if I wasn't aware of life's lessons, but books provided an affirmation, an approval. Every book I read made me think. At the beginning, I did have some doubts about the kind of books I chose to read. A certain little thought nagged me, and these words put me at ease! "Read the books that make you happy even if they are not classics or academic novels that won awards." And that's what I have been doing! I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Lucknow Boy' by Vinod Mehta. That is one of the reasons I love reading books which are neither classics nor award winners. Such books leave you with a happy feeling, the wit and the wisdom are from ordinary individuals and this makes them extraordinary. In spite of being in a crowd, they stand out and can hold on to their own.

Books are great counsellors.

Memoirs, my favourite kind of books, inspire me, challenge me, give me hope and courage and help me to make my life and living more meaningful. If any book, single handedly, transformed my views about books and reading, this is it: Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur. Wracked by untold trauma and guilt, Adrianne, turns to her step mother, Margot, for advice. Margot recommends book after book to read and overcome her fears. 'Books come into our lives for a purpose! You will be amazed to learn so much about your self by delving into the lives of others!' 'What We Carry' by Maya Shanbhag must not have been an easy book to write, it was not an easy read either. She writes about her mother, a successful psychiatrist, a loving mother and a brave woman. And as time passes, she begins to doubt this person. Was it only an image she had created in her mind? Her mother seemed definitely different now. She learns the brutal truth the hard way, her mother is suffering from schizophrenia. Did my mother also suffer from schizophrenia? I did have my fears, I had no means of knowing what she was going through. For me, this book was revealing and I owe a debt of gratitude to Maya for sharing her experiences with me. 'Estranged' by Jessica Berger Gross held up a mirror to my own life, but through the eyes of another. I realise I'm not alone in my suffering. I'm ever so grateful to the wonderful ladies. I too have put behind my troubles and look triumphantly into the future!

Books make you think and redefine yourself.

So many events shape our lives. And influence us indirectly. I was happy to read and get to know some of them. My list of favorite books includes war memoirs. The war was a tragedy of immense proportions while it lasted and after it officially ended too. The memories of war played havoc on the survivors and many carried the scars for generations. War is never a solution but humans are such, they never learn lessons from history. The world wars may be over but the wounds are still raw. It's a sad testimony of mans ambition and hate. Displacement due to war remains a scourge of humanity. The suffering is immense, it transcends generations. So is migration, for whatever reason. It is only a minuscule few who escape the agony of being separated from their homeland and family. I am a child of migrants, the third generation and yet it took me ages to overcome that trauma, which affected me in so many different ways.

It is the same of true crime and criminals. But innocents do get caught in the crossfire and find themselves serving years in prison. The more I read about prison life in India, the more I'm convinced that "the prison system in India is like death, only designed to subject pain and not to reform inmates. Some live to tell the tale after being released. For most, the institutionalized torture sounds the death knell of life. I wonder why this inhumane system continues to be perpetuated, where both the criminals and authorities seem to have lost their conscience at some point or the other.

And again, I wonder, where is that kind lord to whom we pray everyday. These books make me question my spirituality. Earlier, I would consider praying for myself a singularly selfish act, and so I would pray for the whole world. Now I'm more than convinced that we need to pray only for ourselves everyday. We need to ask for courage to do the right things, to steadfastly walk on the path of discipline and self control, and make piety and empathy our life's mission. In the hope that it will help us lead meaningful lives.

Books provide refinement, and help to make informed choices.

As it is, I had deleted fiction from my list. Now came the turn of very long books, more than 300 pages long. I included more books on nature, including travels and wild life. This was another love I discovered, the connect between man and animal, both at home and in the wild. They are fascinating stories and it becomes difficult to tell in the end, who is more humane! Books on nature, wildlife and the environment have provided me food for thought. I'm amazed to read a number of books on everyday things we take for granted. Popularly categorized as travel tales, I grew fascinated by such books; how people yearned to get away to a far off land and start life anew. How they faced the upheavals and celebrated the joys they found! In this context, I must mention, Travels on my Elephant by Mark Shand, which kindled  the travel bug in me. 

Books can surprise and enthrall too!

The challenge threw up a revelation, books by Indians from India, which were absolutely interesting and engaging. I enjoyed reading them all. In turn, it helped me look at my life with new eyes, it helped me understand and empathize with my surroundings and dear ones and I didn't want my thoughts to get lost. Some books were more meaningful for me than others. And I wanted to record my progress, especially my thoughts, as I read books of my choice. So I wrote them all down in this special blog! I had completed the Reading Challenge 21. It has been a while, I have not been able to complete another Reading Challenge.  I'm determined to do so in 2024.

 
















































































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