A Good Bad Habit!

Photo credit: www.goodreader.com
Memory tags: In what was Ratna’s Mascot, till it became Kaibadsuk Bookstore, Police Bazaar, Shillong.

It’s time out, a Saturday evening and I am in mood holiday, time to relax and chill out! What better than bookshops for starters. I wander between shelves and the massed lines of Anita Desai’s Inheritance of Loss and Paul Coelho’s Flowing like a River, intimidate me by their sheer quantity! I turn to find “The Shell – 500 million Years of Inspired Design”-an old friend! Shells are my old favorites and so it has been even with the Gods, “Panchajanya Hrishikesha”- we are all part of a larger fabric inescapably bound together. The last two words bring me to another bookshop, another title.

This time sitting on low chair, feet stretched out, I leaf through Nayan Chanda’s story of how traders, preachers, adventurers and warriors shaped globalization in her book “Bound Together”. I quote from its dust jacket,” globalization is a process of ever growing interconnectedness that began thousands of years ago and continues today with ever growing speed and ease.”Thrilled by its holistic approach, I check out its contents and price but find I am in the mood for something lighter, chatpata! A red chilly on a red book says “Real Fast Indian Food “. Mridula Baljekars’ volume is simple, practical and printed in non flashy wholesome font. I flit to another shelf, “The Empire of the Stars “catches my attention. Its sub titled friendship, obsession and betrayal in the quest for black holes. Arthur T. Miller chronicles the Eddington vs. S.Chandrashekar story. I move along to find Rabindranath Tagore and Agatha Christie stories available in similar, large, composite, omnibus volumes! It brings home the fact my alma mater, Visva Bharati University no longer holds the copyrights for the former. As I start to move out, a shot of Bunty and Bubbly on a motorbike BB 420 catches my eye. It’s the cover of Kaveree Bamzai’s ” Bollywood Today “in glorious technicolour! An intelligent coffee table book with breath taking photos of breathless Bollywood greats of today. At Rs 795 it more than tempts me to empty my purse. The stardust addiction dies hard! I walk out before I give into temptation to another old haunt.

Amidst dusty academic books on the north east, there is a treasure,’” Meghalaya “from the world in colour series. Its excellent vivid photos were my first introduction to this abode of clouds! Thanks to being published in Hongkong, it’s priced just under Rs 500 and the tourist on a budget, misses taking home this panorama through the lens and settles for less. Robin Sharma moves quickly, I am told, Ferrari or no Ferrari. Were I to not quite understand what he says, there is always the old trusty Oxford Dictionary, which I believe ,is a sellout among students. Chetan Bhagat’s 3 Mistakes of My Life seems to fly off the shelves before it has arrived;” Sea of Poppies “ by Amitav Ghosh tops my next wish list and I am strongly asked to read Secret by Rhonda Bryne. Comparing booklists from other metros I don’t think Shillong is far behind. But do we read enough to have a Shillong best seller list? One slightly apologetic one I got was on the basis of one or two volumes sold per book.

Over a much needed and generous cup of coffee I ponder if reading is still a good bad habit? Don’t we all have memories of reading out of time and place and its consequences? If a single factor has shaped my life and being, it’s been this singular good bad habit. Has it lost out to the electronic media? Market values may have changed. But the story teller did not die because the book was born. The book did not die because the movie was born, nor did the movie die because the television was born. For the human being must communicate or die, whatever the medium! In its latest avatar, even the SMS is enough to , rock on! In my personal opinion, a good book is worth the whole lot of them put together!