Personal Reading History -1

"It is good to be curious because that is how one starts the journey of inquiry... into existence; but if one simply remains curious, then there will be no intensity in it. One can move from one curiosity to another — one will become a driftwood — from one wave to another wave, never getting anchored anywhere. Curiosity is good as a beginning, but then one has to become more passionate. One has to make life a quest, not only a curiosity." --- Osho 

I am now searching for the root of my reading habits and how they have changed my behavior over the span of time. Even though I was attracted towards schoolbooks, I don't remember having any interest in reading at the KG level. The only memory I have of reading is of the nursery rhyme “Johnny Johnny Yes Papa” in the classroom. I spent most of the time listening to old songs by Kishore Kumar and Mahendra Kapoor on a cassette player.

I had started reading children's stories in the Hindi newspaper Dainik Jagran in my childhood. I was also reading stories and poems in my schoolbooks. Champak for toddlers, Balhans for folk and patriotic stories, Nandan with tales of kings and queens, and Nanhe Samrat with its Murkhistan were made available to us by our parents. I was fond of reading comics of various desi superheroes. But the summarized five-page versions of world-famous novels in Nandan were my favourite of all. Suman Saurabh and Chandamama were also there, but their stories were interesting, though presented in a discrete form dispersed over various magazine issues. However, the stories of Vikram Betal and Ulysses left a deep impact on me regarding epic novels and drama.

This was the phase of my life when I was more interested in religious texts. I had finished reading the Ramcharitmanas and Ramayan by the age of 9 years. Then, I also read a lot of Gita Press books about the life of Sri Krishna. By sheer chance, I never had the opportunity to read any Amar Chitra Katha. Also, I was taught various short stanzas by Rahim, Raskhan, Dinkar, Nirala, and Kabir.

Now comes my fanatical phase of reading comics. I was an avid reader of Naagraj, Super Commando Dhruv, Tausi, Doga, Parmanu, Chacha Chaudhary, and Ram-Rahim. I never had any chance to read English comic strips like Archie or Calvin and Hobbes.

One more subject that drew my attention was history books. Since there were no hundreds of comics available for a fast reader like me at my maternal grandmother's home, I was given history books of 10th, 12th, and graduation levels. It had the most powerful impact on my memory. I was sheer delighted by the concept of revolutions that happened in France and Russia. The complex names of Rousseau and Voltaire became familiar to me. It was also a win-win solution for everybody as it kept me engaged for a long time, and I was enjoying the dive into the world of knowledge.