Keep Reading, Keep Leading: A Pledge for International Reading Day.
June 19 will be celebrated as international reading day, and the avid reader and stakeholders will celebrate it with much fanfare like every year. But what we can really take away and give on this occasion, as one of the readers and writers, I was pondering upon that lingering thought of my mind and decided to pen down it.
Without reading books, our mind is full of darkness and life is incomplete. The books not only shape up our thought process, personality but it also has the potential to change the surroundings. In the absence of reading habits, many times, we fail to understand our own strength, and lead life with myopic goals and vision.
Our country, India, has become the third largest economy in the world where every household has a smartphone, but they lack bookshelves and ardent readers. Therefore, the children of these households are clever and smart, but there is no one who can guide these sharp minds properly, what career path to choose and focus besides which prowess should be harnessed that can help them to excel in life and live the better and good life.
The parents of these houses often give the freedom to their children not out of choice, but out of lack of knowledge to choose their own path, then some of them test the success, while the majority of children get stuck, some of them wander in uncharted territory. These children despite having huge potential get the failure and frustrations.
Then, what is the way out to come out from this labyrinth world simple solution the books and developing reading habits. But again the question remains what kind of books because every book is not always useful and suitable to you and me and others. Different careers demand different books so you should have a pal-peer group and an eye to tap these kinds of books and knowledge. The reading books will ignite the slumbered minds and uncharted territory becomes familiar one with an atlas in our hand.
The books can work as lighthouses in mazes and deep sea. Therefore, on the international reading day, we should take the resolution and pledge to read more and more books. It will give us a fresh perspective, and a weapon to fight against any odds situation. It will also make you stand tall in the crowded and competitive market. It will remove the inferiority complex, darkness and slavery from the blood and make you a confident and open-minded citizen of this globe. The knowledge that is gained by reading books is infinite.
More importantly, the present generation is more fortunate that they do not need to go to any book shop or library. Everything is within their ambit because of the emergence of e-book, online blogs, posts etc. The sky is limited for them. But most of the young minds, hand rather than flipping the book pages, their thumb get engrossed scrolling the unwanted reels, videos and photos with endless hours. Therefore, we should know what to scroll and not to waste the precious time.
The great minds like Leo Tolstoy also emphasised on reading, but that reading act should not remain only for consuming the bare black and printed words, but it should take the deep dive and transform experience with deeper understanding of life and personal growth.
So, on the international reading day, once again we all should take the pledge of inculcating the habit of reading the best book from our respective field book that will help us to stay updated with new emerging technology, research, modern tools and equipment. As parents, we do develop the saving habit among children by putting each and every penny in a piggy box, same investment should be made in buying books, and slowly and gradually developing our own library. The reason, as Mark Twain quotes, "The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read".
I sign off with a message, keep reading, keep leading.
Prafulla Wankhede
Founder, Chairman and Managing Director
