Books

Today I have started reading a new book. The book is a translation, although I do not like reading translations as they fail in reflecting the true feelings of the author. It reflects the translators understanding of the content. I wanted to get the book in its language of origin i.e. English but I couldn’t and hence I have the translated version.
If any of my friends had to describe me most of them won’t forget the term bookworm. From my early days in school I have been a bright student and when we call a student bright we take it for granted that he/she must be a bookworm. But I never liked books earlier. I mugged up course book as I had no options but apart from course books and silly hindi comics there were no other books. My knowledge on literature was null. My father had a good collection of engineering books but I didn’t realize until I was in my secondary class. For years those books remained inside a box and we being nice kids never tried to open the box. Who knows if it was a Pandora’s Box? Mummy loved hindi novels and her brother was mad about those hindi novels. He was so addicted that he would be reading those pocket books even walking on the roads. We were however told that reading novels was not a good habit and good boys like us (me and my brother) were not supposed to read them. We being the most obedient kids never always abided by mummy’s advice. Buwa (father) being away from us (he was transferred to another place) we hardly saw anyone reading other books and hence we got no inspiration. Yet I do remember the first books I received as gift. I had fractured my leg and couldn’t go to office. I being a bright student was a favorite of the principal, so once he came to see me. He had come with three or four books of which I remember two one was Vikram-Vetal which is a story about a king and a ghost who is the king’s friend. The second was the stories from Panchatantra. It was a thick book with loads of pictures that was charm for eyes. I loved the second book and within two or three days no stories were there which was not read. I read them time and again. The book was with me for a long time. Then again there were no books and we still believed students were not supposed to read books that are not in school syllabus. When I was at class five, our Nepali teacher used to talk about different books that were very popular, she used to tell us stories and about the author. I wished I had those books. There was library but I do not remember bringing home any books. In fact the library was small and we couldn’t borrow books from there. We used to have library classes but none of us remained in library and loved running in the schools compound playing different games.
At class eight there was a book called ‘Tales from Shakespeare’ as our course book and I loved all the stories specially ‘Alls well ends well’, ’Hamlet’ and ‘Taming of a Shrew’. Our teacher was a good one and from there I must have started liking literature. Then there was a small incident in our class. There was a boy called Arun who was a good writer. His answers used to be filled with literary stuffs and mine used to be like that of an under-aged child. I managed to secure the first position in exam but failed to perform well in Nepali. I knew where the loop hole was, it was my worst sense of literature and proper use of language. During one of those many classes, I asked Arun to let me see his answers and he didn’t give me. During break I took the copy out of his bag and had just started reading few lines, he came and he was so furious. I don’t remember what he exactly said but that hurt my self esteem and I vowed to improve my literature. Now there were books. I read many books available in the library.
Those days the only good library was British Council’s library, so I with few friends of mine used to walk all the way from our school to British Council on Fridays. It used to be a one hour’s tiring walk yet it worth the sweat. Though my intention was to improve my language skills, I got pulled toward Astronomy and paintings. I spent most of the time reading the books on astronomy and turning pages of art books. I loved the renaissance period’s art. We used to have art class in school as well. I liked surrealism and those visits helped me appreciate abstract art. I spent time seeking reasons in those Van Gogh’s work why were they so popular. We discussed astronomy. Soon I became a member of the Council’s library and every week I used to bring three books. I read Robinson Crusoe, Black Beauty, Mill on the Floss, Adventure of Tom Swayer, Alladin, Sense and Sensibility, Felicia’s Journey, Oliver Twist, hard times etc. Just few months later I had read many books whose name I didn’t even remember. I had gone for books because I wanted to improve my language but slowly I was falling in love with books. I read about Hitler and World War, I read Gandhi and I read Communist Manifesto of which the last I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand anything on Communist Manifesto but learned few things about class struggle, evolution of society, importance of economics etc. I read a translated version of ‘Dialectical Materialism’. I read the whole book yet nothing got into my brain. I read those books to understand what politics was all about. I read few Nepali books as well but I didn’t like any of them because I couldn’t get the good ones. Everybody loved works of Laxmi Prasad Devkota but I didn’t.
Earlier when I had just started reading, when anybody asked me about my favorite books I used to tell them the names of every book I had read. Soon I had read so many books that I could not say which was my favorite. At college I loved ‘Mother’ by Maxim Gorky and Gandhi Autobiography. These two books had quite an impact on me and I realized that books are not just interesting but they are carriers of change. I must have read few more books but I don’t remember. Then a real fascinating book got into my hand it was Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the book became one of the most influential book I have read. When I read Atlas Shrugged I would do anything to get her next work ‘the fountainhead’. I believe these books can churn ones thought upside down. I loved ‘The old man and the sea’, ‘God of Small Things’, ’Christmas Carol’, ‘Narendra dai’ to name a few.
I hope I will keep reading. I am proud of my ignorance and proud for my thirst for new ideas and thoughts.