My Foray into Blogging

 

Whenever I sit to write my new blog, there’s a chaos in my mind- I want to write so many things, express so many thoughts- but I don’t know where to start. Let me start today with my foray into this world of blogging.

Reading was a hobby introduced to me by one of my school friends when I was in 6^th grade. Before that I used to read comics and whatever magazines of my mother’s I could lay my hands on. Slowly, reading developed into a passion, and now I’ve got addicted to books so badly that I feel anxious when I’m on the verge of completing a book and don’t have the next one ready.

Over the years I’ve read a plethora of books starting from Enid Blyton to Nancy Drew-Sherlock Holmes-Danielle Steele-Jeffery Archer-Ayn Rand, not to forget the classics like Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, Gone with the Wind and so on. Then I shifted to historical fiction to biographies and autobiographies to true accounts to non-fiction. Of course, magazines and newspapers have always been an important part of my reading world.

Every book that I’ve ever read has touched me in some way or the other. Some’ve had a good influence on me while the others have had their role to play in affecting me in a negative way.

‘Once you’ve read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you’, Louis L’ Amour, one of the world’s most popular writers has truly remarked.

Not many people might agree with me about the role books and the habit of reading play in our lives. How exactly do both these things influence us? Do they really help us in any way in our lives? I’d say they do to a great extent. I’ve come across highly ‘educated’ people who happen to be non-readers, I’ve found their perspective of the world, the life, the peoples relatively narrow. Having been in the teaching profession since last many years, I feel, rather I believe that a major part of my most important contribution to my students’ learning and growth have come from my treasured habit of reading.

Apart from reading, travel is another great teacher in life. I’ve been fortunate enough to have travelled to different corners of India and to some parts of Europe later in life. Having travelled thus, has definitely enriched my spectrum of experiences about life. It’s amazing to see how different people can be from each other from one part of the planet to another, and yet be the same.

I fully and whole heartedly accept the role my upbringing and education have played in shaping me as a person.

Despite all this, I can boldly claim that had it not been for the wide spectrum of books that I read, I wouldn’t have imbibed half the knowledge and wisdom that lies dormant somewhere deep within. At times I’m pleasantly surprised at myself about the words that leave my mouth while talking to youngsters, while debating about social issues or daring to enter into the realm of spirituality!

At the risk of sounding boastful, I attribute my humble entry into the world of writing to my adventures in the expansive universe of Books and Reading. I’d like to sum up in the words of David Grayson in ‘Under my Elm’-

“All my life I’ve been building up my anthology. Whenever words fly up at me from the printed page as I read, I intercept them instantly, knowing they are for me. I turn them over carefully in my mind and cling to them hard.”