A passionate lament on Facebook by a friend of mine on the
lack of reading habit amongst youngsters left me amused. Amused because the
person (my friend) himself is in his mid-twenties, and then whom did he refer
to as youngsters? No idea. It also made me think about books, what they have
given me & my revulsion towards it nowadays. Though I’m not a well-read
person I enjoy reading.My reading is erratic & the books I have left unread
outnumber those which I have actually read. Reading has given me joy in fact loads
of it .But why did I suddenly start to loathe it.Perhaps it has to do with my
irritation with some well-read people with intellectual pretensions. They come in various shapes & sizes but
have some common characteristics.
1) Regardless of their socioeconomic status they had access
to good books right from their childhood.
2) Their reading pattern somewhat goes like this Enid Blyton at five ,Dickens at 10 & the likes of Shakespeare ,Shaw, Marx &Gramsci
as they grew up.
3) They look down upon people with “impoverished” English
&” low” intellectual quality.
4) They consider 90% of Indians as fools.
5) They are lament about the falling quality of Indian
writing in English with the advent of the likes of ChetanBhagat, Ravinder Singh &Amish Tripathi
6) They have a “deep “understanding &” opinion” on
everything under the sun
7) They don’t miss an opportunity to show off their
erudition. Once I asked about Machiavelli to a friend the conversation went
like this
Me-“who is Machiavelli?”
My Friend-“which Machiavelli?”
Me-“some thinker I suppose I’m not sure”
Friend-“the Machiavelli who wrote “The Prince”
Me-“I think so “
Friend- "I have read" The Prince" “
.Then she chose to give me a guided tour of her evolution as
an intellectual & I was busy cursing myself. Another instance, I was sitting with a group of friends
we were talking about Anna Hazare’s fast out
of the blue someone recited “yedha yedha hi dharmasya” from Gita & everyone
except me & another friend joined the chorus.
8) Finally almost all of them are big showoffs & even
bigger bores
These people make such a big fool out of themselves that my
revulsion towards them spills over to books too. What irks me the most about these
self-proclaimed intellectuals is that never show the maturity one expects from
a learned person. Reading gives you knowledge not wisdom. Wisdom comes only
when you supplement your knowledge with experience. It is always better to take
the advice of an experienced man than a well-read man,because the former knows
what reality is. If one had access to
books quite early in life & if you are well read it just means one thing .You
are blessed to have got such an opportunity
& hats off to you for utilizing that
to the maximum. If you start believing & act like a wise man simply by
reading a whole lot of books you are just a fool with loads of facts in your head.
A man showing off his erudition is no different from another one who shows off
his latest gadget or swanky new car. This is not to say that reading is a futile
activity.On the contrary it has many benefits. Reading gives you information that will come in
handy at some time or the other. It gives you a huge vocabulary that will help you
to articulate your thoughts well. It helps you to maintain your sanity when
life becomes tough. But limiting one to reading gives you severe limitations
one has to travel, meet people & experience life to move to the next level. And the
best reader is one who reads for the joy of it.And this is my free advice to
those “youngsters” about whom my friend lamented, read if you enjoy doing it.If
you don’t read you might be missing one of the biggest joys of life but that’s
not the end of the world. And if you encounter any intellectual show off, just
ignore them.