How To Read A Book

Books always surprise me. More when I am re-reading them. In different phases of life a book appeals differently because over time we evolve. So does our thought process and what we need and extract from a book. I believe when I am ready for a book it comes to me. Also what I gather from a book is how I perceive or read the book.

Many times it so happens that a book lies unread on the shelf. The urge to read it does not happen. Then one fine day I just take it out and read it in one breath. That itself surprises me. Then there are a few books which I have begun but, try as much as I may, I have not been able to finish them. Life Beyond Death by Swami Abhedananda is one such book – I have been plagued by terrible nightmares whenever I have started reading it. It’s not scary but is based on lived experiences and experiments.  However, the book lies unread till now.

Recently I have discovered an app of a renowned Bengali Publication House which is a storehouse of books, magazines, news articles, podcasts etc. I got to read Raaj Kahini by Abanindranath Tagore in ebook form on this app once again. This is a book which I have read innumerable times in my childhood. This is also the book which piqued my interest about the history of Rajasthan – it’s saga, myths and significance. 

How best to recreate childhood if not by reading those books which have been my favourites in the formative years? In fact, call it telepathy, I have been wanting to re-read this very book for quite some time now.  A collection of short stories with original sketches by the author, fondly called Abon Thakur, it traces the dynastic origin of the Ranas of Mewar, the bloodbaths of Chittorgarh, the self-immolation by thousands of palace ladies  led by Rani Padmini, the devotion of Meera Bai and many more royal fables and lores. Reading the book after almost five decades I was surprised to find myself becoming a kid again.

Inspired by my elder sister, who is attending zoom classes on learning the Gita, I have too started reading the sacred text – Shrimad Bhagwat Gita. Though I have read parts of it in a scattered kind of way and always intended to give it a serious reading, honestly, it was not on my agenda this year. But as I said books happen when the time is right. Again I am amazed how I am instantly attracted to its deeply meaningful shlokas. Gita is not a book but a way of living. It is said that if you just randomly open a page and read it, the book gives you just what you are looking for.

At present, bogged down by many things, I am again mystified by the amount of peace a few paragraphs of the holy tome gives me. Like any other religious scriptures, Gita has to be read many times over, to accurately understand and assimilate the core teachings. It’s a path finder too. I don’t know whether I am meant to follow the path that it indicates. Perhaps yes and perhaps no – only time will tell. But one thing is for sure the book has really found me. Now, isn’t that surprising ?

Trivia : Abanindranath Tagore or Abon Thakur, as he is fondly referred to, is World Poet Rabindranath Tagore’s nephew. He is the founder of Bengal School of Art and a noted Children’s writer.