Backstory

Knowing a language is all about the ability to read, write and speak. Without this full spectrum of capabilities it is impossible to appreciate any language. For example, Tamil is my mother tongue, but I can hardly read or write. This, I believe, robs me of the ability to understand the rich history and culture of Tamilnadu.

It was even worse, once upon a time, when my love affair with English began. I was brought up in a rural, hill side setting in Kerala. While Tamil was the spoken language at home, I learned Malayalam as it was the language of communication with my friends and the outside world. The primary school, where I studied till grade 4, did not have English language as part of the curriculum. There was a great emphasis on Science and Math as well as Malayalam as the language. Math problems had to be understood via Malayalam and answers communicated in a similar way. By the time I was ready to move to middle school, ie Grade V, I would say I had a good grounding in Science and Math but none in English. While the Malayalam language per se was rich it was not thought to be the preferred one to seek progress in society. And, the small town had no schools teaching English.

It was decided, therefore, that I had to be moved to a city and study in an English Medium School. The choice was the capital town, Trivandrum (the English version and now Thiruvananthapuram, in the local language), because my grandparents lived there and of course there were some very good schools as well.

I had to write an admission test in English and Math as the school which was chosen was in high demand. When the results came, I had done well in Math, despite not knowing the language (probably someone did a translation of the problem for me!) but English was clearly way below par! I still remember being blinded by a set of questions which was far beyond my comprehension, like they say everything was in Latin! The elders in the family would not take a no for an answer. And if you had the connections, external pressure could be brought in to force the school to admit me. Probably, there was an underlying condition attached – if the ward is not able to buck up in the first year, the doors would be permanently shut.

As I look back, this was a significant event in my journey to become a friend of English. No stones were left unturned. From Grade 5 to 7, I had a personal tutor (who was probably paid all of Rs 50 per month) to get me around to understanding the basics. I started with A for Apple and Z for Zebra! And in Grade 8 to 10, I had a grand old greying English Professor teaching me language, grammar and the subtle art of written English. Wren and Martin was the bible, but the amount of practice that we did probably shaped my ability to discriminate good usage from bad.

As important as the role played by the above Gurus, who encouraged me to read anything that came my way, there were multiple factors that contributed to my current love for reading.

What influenced me?

My effort here is to list the most significant ones in the order of importance.

1] A near relative

Weekdays were generally busy with school. I was allowed the liberty of visiting a near relative (let us call him Mr S) who happened to be of the same age and studied in the same school. Mr S and English were best of buddies. His diet was English soup. He was convent educated and his dad’s favourite pastime was to spend time in his library. The master library had a number of books – detective novels by Alistair MacLean, Agatha Christie and Perry Mason were what I can recollect, may be there were more. Mr S’s own small library was full of Enid Blyton’s (Secret Seven, Famous Five, the Five Find Outers – Fatty, Buster and Mr Goon!), Hardy Boys (Franklin Dixon) and Amar Chitra Katha’s. Mr S, soon enough, moved on to reading PG Wodehouse, leaving me with his now defunct library!

Most of a typical day with Mr S was devoted to some very popular games such as Cricket, Carrom and Cards. The fact that he lived in a joint family meant that we had no problem filling in teams! In the evenings he used to subtly encourage me to read. I was allowed to borrow a book for the week with the promise that I would actually make an attempt to read them. In addition, we used to listen to BBC Cricket Commentary and later to tennis commentary on Radio (no TV back then). He could narrate the rules of tennis without watching a single match!

How do you know you have graduated in a language? One day, Mr S told me to quit reading the kids’ stuff (I was probably reading the same books over and over again) and presented me with a book titled “Uncle Fred in Springtime” – by PG Wodehouse. Honestly, I had no clue what I was getting into. I probably never understood the subtle humour, but laborious as it was, I managed to finish the book – with a very vague understanding of the story line (never heard of castles or pigs being taken to a beauty contest or the art of English romance before – so these never made an impression until much later). Mr S was the ideal role model giving me the push – something akin to a young kid on top of the slide, a bit petrified until someone gives it a push, and lo and behold fear is turned into joy! This episode also brought out the distinction between written and spoken English very clearly as Mr S used to pronounce Wodehouse (correctly) as WOODHOUSE!

2] Physical Libraries

Trivandrum was blessed with at least two great physical libraries.  Trivandrum Public Library and the second, the British Library. Unlike virtual libraries, physical libraries had the smell of books and used to also function as a place where the geeks gather!

My classmates’ mother was the Librarian of the Children’s Section at the Trivandrum Public Library. The Children’s section had lots of comics especially the likes of Tintin and Asterix. Comics cannot be taken home and had to be read in house. However, with the special recognition granted to me, I could subtly reserve a title which I had not read. And this process ensured that I finished the Tintin collection first and thereafter Asterix. I must admit that Tintin appealed to me more than Asterix!

The British Library was a place to go once I started majoring in Science. In terms of priority, the sports section came first, then Science & Maths followed by Fiction – my preference was inversely correlated to the number of books in each section! New Scientist and The Cricketer were the only two magazines that I remember reading. Be that it may, it was a place for the erudite and the elite. To be seen with books from the British Council meant that you had arrived! One of the ever lasting memories was that of my neighbour, who used to prepare for his Indian Administrative exam through extensive reading and research at the British Council. He is now retired, after many years of outstanding service to the nation.

3] The HINDU newspaper

The HINDU newspaper is an institution in South India. Anyone above the age of 40, would have grown up with it. It was our only newspaper for a long time.

I used to read the paper from the back, to be more precise the last but one page. This was the designated sports page and had long stories describing test matches, which are played over five days. The art of transporting the reader to the stadium was in the hands of Rajan Bala and later, R Mohan. In a very subtle fashion, both these gentlemen were influencing my love for the game as well as the language. I am not sure whether I read the other sections of the paper, the serious stuff was left for the elders to ruminate on. I was nudged to read the editorial page often. I ended up reading them mechanically as without other mediums of influence the context was often lost.

4] Bookshelf at home

Our little study room, back then, had a fairy sizeable bookshelf (it is still there with the assortment of books tilted towards the spiritual side). There were a number of books (the fiction section was very small)

– Literature  – Eg: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
– Engineering – Eg: How to maintain your car? (or something to that effect), home electrical wiring, dam design
– Philosophy- Eg: The autobiography of a yogi
– Bridge – Eg: Five weeks to winning bridge
– Hinduism – Eg: Bhagavath Geeta, Art of man making
– Fiction – Eg: Arabian Nights, Agatha Christie

and of course a few illustrated books for children. There was a six volume box set titled THE MODERN CHILDREN”S LIBRARY OF KNOWLEDGE – expensive and probably purchased in  instalments as well. The set was procured essentially to get a world view on history, language, games, etc  – the most prized collection in our times. This used to be my go to book set especially to understand rules of sports and games! My brother, as he grew up, showed a keen interest in Astronomy which contributed to another collection – remember Carl Sagan?

In such an atmosphere, with very little distraction, you would imagine that reading would be a natural thing to do. I was able to do justice to only about 25% of the collection. Even now, whenever I visit my parents, there would be many titles that would be begging to be taken off the shelf.

5] A Rs 2000 book allowance

My first job (to be very technical the second one, as I ran away from the first in about a months’ time!) came with a special prize –  a book allowance worth Rs 2000. Quite novel, I must admit. Of course we had to submit bills etc, but this gave me the freedom to roam around the book shops in and around VT station and Fountain area in Mumbai. The thrill of purchasing books with your own money and then seeing them by your bedside are memories which will never fade!

I still have a couple of them on my book shelf – The IBM Way by Buck Rogers – on the art of selling and Humorous Stories – an eclectic collection from around the world!

6] Sankar’s & Strand

Much later, once air travel became the norm, I discovered this super store known as Sankar’s – the book people, at the Bangalore Airport. For some reason, the way they displayed books, the fact that all titles were contemporary and with every one of them saying pick me up – no one book store, even today, can beat that feeling at Sankar’s. It was another matter that it looked cool to purchase books from the Airport and carry it around on a flight! Sankar’s and the long unproductive hours in flight made sure that I read more – mostly management wisdom and self help. I am not sure whether Sankar’s exist any more. I do not see them in the new Bangalore Airport. The last Sankar’s book shop that I patronised, was the one at the Coimbatore airport.

Strand Book Stall at Bombay and then later Bangalore was another league all together. They had a massive massive inventory and the promise was they will get any book that you want and that too at a discount! Their annual book sale was something to look forward to and I would have visited  about four or five of them in Mumbai. I must admit that a former classmate, who later went to IIT BOMBAY introduced me to this gem. What I liked about the store was also its very genial owner, the late Mr TN Shanbag. He used to take down your mailing address and lo and behold, monthly newsletters started arriving describing the new arrivals and what book set is available on discount! He knew how to take care of his customers!

“Having been humiliated in a reputed bookstore of the time for touching a book, the young Shanbhag wanted to start a bookstore where the access to ‘Saraswati’ would not be restricted to the elite, but would be open to a wider section of the people. Shanbhag approached Keki Mody, the owner of Strand Cinema with his idea, and that is how the Strand Book Stall came into being on the premises of the cinema hall.” 

– Quote attributed to Gita Chadda in her book Zero Point Mumbai

“I believe a book is man’s best friend. A book seller acts as a catalyst between a book and the reading habit.” 

– Quote attributed to Mr Shanbag in the Hindu Business Line

7] Flipkart book delivery

The online book store was invented in India by Flipkart (their website says they started in 2007, I probably heard about them a year or so later). It was fascinating, first to be able to search by author or title and second to have it delivered home via an impregnable packaging. I was hooked on! See, to own a book means that its physical condition is important. Flipkart was spot on in this respect. And, there was a special thrill in opening the packaging to discover your baby inside – as in peeling away the onion skin.

Amazon came much later and the Kindle followed. I still love to read the physical book despite owning a Kindle. The Kindle is my preferred medium, however, to read fiction.

Earlier, I used to buy books on impulse, which ended up creating a TSUNDOKO (Japanese, the constant act of buying books but never reading them!) syndrome. Now I allow my preferred titles to sit on the shopping cart for at least a month – those that I really love would finally find a way to be part of my collection!

8] Jaipur Lit Fest

Heard of the Jaipur Literature Fest? Chances are that you have. I had the good fortune to attend a few editions, which happens every year in the month of January at the Diggi Palace. It is probably in its tenth edition now. What the organisers do amazingly well over the four days, is to have an outstanding mix of contemporary writers across a variety of subjects talk about their inspiration and creation. Imagine rubbing shoulders with Dr Atul Gawande, Taleb, Sashi Tharoor (he is everywhere), Amish Tripathi, Roopa Pai, Stephen Fry, Thomas Picketty, Omran Pamuk, Javed Akhtar….One gets to hear their views and counter views. However, with parallel sessions, one has to make a choice and the feeling of emptiness will always remain at the end of each passing day. After all, Kullad Chai and Snacks can only serve to fill the stomach!

The onsite bookstore encourages you to browse, buy and get your favourite book autographed in person. My recipe is not to buy the books at the store, but to note down what I want and order them online!. Die had fans of the fest have told me that the character of the event has changed now, with lower percentage of serious crowd but more of the selfie / outing types – entry is free by the way.  Perhaps a marginal gate fee might do the trick.

The love affair continues

Now, I read an eclectic mix of History, Technology, Philosophy, Management and Fiction. I have over 300 titles at home in physical form and another 100 odd on my Kindle. There are some stolen ones as well – I mean titles that I have borrowed and not returned (by design or accident?).

My current run rate is about 12 to 18 titles a year. One of the challenges that I have is to retain what I read. This has proven to be a little difficult. May be, I should ruminate on the contents a bit more before I jump on to the next. Or write book summaries – this is something I will probably do. Top 10 books that I have read and why – nice idea to also keep the writing going!

Happy Reading!