RSS FeedsBooks, a long time back
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24 May
2005 |
As I learned to read quite late (well after my 10th year), my thirst to read books had reached a prodigal proportion by the time I could flip pages and understand what beautiful thoughts were contained in there. I can still remember the first few books that I read. The first book that comes to my memory was a Hindi book of short stories for children — Bahut din huai, which means, A long time back. There were a few stories from The Mahabharata including the one in which the Kauravas hatch a plan to burn the Pandavas alive. One story was of Gautam Buddha. I found the book so fascinating that I read it many times. All the stories seemed beautiful, ancient, and hence, melancholic. I was directly interacting with people who had existed thousands of years ago. They were mythical, a few of them were even demonic, but they instilled in me a craving to plunge into those times and be with them. Still when I think of that book, I’m imbrued with surrealistic longing.
The next book that comes to my mind is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was read (translated in Hindi) to the class by a substitute teacher with a phenomenally theatrical perspicacity. It was an abridged version of the original classic, but the macabre tale was narrated in such a spectacular manner that the teacher who had come to take care of our class for just twenty days ended up spending her next twenty years in our school: we just wouldn’t let any other teacher teach us. So naturally it was the first book I took from my class library (we had miniature libraries in individual classes) once I was capable of reading it. Some day I’ll write about our class library. I’ll also some day write about the teacher mentioned above, because it was she who forcibly made me read English books during my various recalcitrant phases.
Since I started reading when I was quite old and since I could already speak Hindi, and to an extent English with some degree of ease, learning to read was a rapid process. Within six months I was reading detective novels in Hindi and The Famous Five, The Hardy Boys and other books in English. I no longer had to pretend reading books (another story) but could actually read them.
Those were the times of detective pocket books in Hindi. Pulp fiction authors did a brisk business writing two to three books almost every month. They were mostly hackneyed, run-of-the-mill sorts but I devoured them like anything. In fact the seeds of writing were sowed during the lazy June afternoons when everybody in the house slept and I read the detective novels under the infernal shadow of the tree in front of our balcony. There was another friend of mine who briefly shared with me the passion for reading and writing but as he grew up, he not only developed other friendships, he also abandoned the literary passion. Together we almost planned around fifty ineffably bloodcurdling plots that would have revolutionized the then contemporary detective fiction genre.
It was very easy to get new books to read. We could easily rent the books at 25-paise-a-day and I could read two books in a day sometimes especially during the holidays.
Sadly, these days I observe children as well as adults least interested in reading books. People wrongly attribute this insouciance towards books to busy lifestyle and the television. I think this is not purely correct. Books require a basic level of intelligence that lacks these days and this amply gets manifested in the crass plagiarism of old Hindi songs. To understand books, you need to know words and to know words, you need to invest your time in learning them. You also need patience. These two attributes seem to be commodities in scant supply. Books also require internal silence that again is missing amidst us.
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So true Amrit,
I spent my life reading probably thousands of books. Before coming to Costa Rica I donated most of them to a school in Switzerland, but still brought about half a ton in a container here. I never had a TV until know when the kids had to learn Spanish, and unfortunately most of my reading today is done on the computer, but I still treasure my books, some of them from the late 1800’s that were from my grand-parents and printed on hemp (paper that will not get brown).
Have a happy day
Jörn
It’s interesting that you started reading so late!
One little thing i’ve noticed is what happens within families makes a profound difference in reading habits. Luckily for me, my house had lots of books, and my sister was a voracious reader, and my mother would alwas have a book in her had. So i started reading very early, and was reading kiddy books before i started kindergarden!
I was never allowed to read “story books” as a child. Go do your home work, go read your text books is all I did.
Leela
Hi Leela.
This is sad. Parents often get too bogged down by their own notions of “reading”. Any sort of reading other than the text books seems to them a wastage of time, whereas I firmly believe that true knowledge lies outside of text books.
In fact, I am staggered at the number of books that I managed to read when in school. At today’s average, I’ll need 3 more lifetimes to do that again.
I’ve stopped buying books though
Program on the emergence of civilization.
“14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent. ”
Favor.
And disfavor.
They point out Africans’ failed attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it’s applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals.
The North American continent had none. Now 99% of that population is gone.
AIDS in Africa.
Organizational Heirarchy
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
1. MUCK - perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as “god”
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management
3. Evil/disfavored aliens - runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere
Terrestrial management:
4. Chinese/egyptians - this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans - they answer to the egyptians
6. Mafia - the real-world interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician - Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.
Movies foreshadowing catastrophy
1985 James Bond View to a Kill 1989 San Francisco Loma Prieta earthquake.
Many Muslims are being used like the Germans and Japanese of WWII::being used to hurt others and envoke condemnation upon their people.
They can affect the weather and Hurricane Katrina was accomplished for many reasons and involves many interests, as anything this historical is::
1. Take heat off Sheenhan/Iraq, protecting profitable war machine/private war contracts
2. Gentrification. New Orleans median home price of $84k is among the lowest in major American cities, certainly among desirable cities.
Our society gives clues to the system in place. We all have heard the saying “He has more money than god.” There is also an episode of the Simpsons where god meets Homer and says “I’m too old and rich for this.”
This is the system on earth because this is the system everywhere.
god is evil because of money.
I don’t want to suggest the upper eschelons are evil and good is the fringe.
But they have made it abundantly clear that doing business with evil (disfavored) won’t help people. They say only good would have the ear, since evil is struggling for survival, and therefore only the favored could help me.
The clues are there which companies are favored and which are disfavored, market domination being one clue, but they conceal it very hard because it is so crucial.
I offer an example of historical proportions:::
People point to Walmart and cry “anti-union”.
Unions enable disfavored people to live satisfactorly without addressing their disfavor. This way their family’s problems are never resolved. Without the union they would have to accept the heirarchy, their own inferiority.
Unions serve to empower.
Walmart is anti-union because they are good. They try to help people address and resolve their problems.
Media ridicule and lawsuits are creations to reinforce people’s belief that Walmart is evil (disfavored).
I believe the coining of the term “Uncle Sam” was a clue alluding to just this.
The middle class is being deceived. They are being misled into the unfavored, and subsequently will have no hope.
Amercia is a country of castoffs, rejects. Italy sent its criminals. Malcontents.
Between the thrones, the klans and kindred, they “decided” who they didn’t want and acted, creating discontent and/or starvation.
The u.s. is full of disfavored rejects. It is the reason for the myriad of problems not found in European countries. As far as the Rockafellers and other industrialists of the 19th century go, I suspect these aren’t their real names. I suspect they were chosen to go and head this new empire.
Jesus Christ is a religious figure of evil. These seperatist churches formed so they could still capture the rest of the white people, keeping them worshipping the wrong god.
And now they do it to people of color, Latinos and Asians, after centuries of preying upon them.
Since Buddism doesn’t recongnize a god, the calls are never heard, and Chinese representation is instead selected by the thrones.
It was set up this way. Perhaps dyanstic thrones had a say, but maybe not.
Budda was the Asian’s Jesus Christ::: bad for the people. “They came up at the same time for a reason.”
Simpson’s foreshadowing::Helloween IV special, Flanders is Satan. “Last one you ever suspect.”
“You’ll see lots of nuns where you’re going:::hell!!!” St. Wigham, Helloween VI, missionary work, destroying cultures.
Over and over, the Simpsons was a source of education and enlightenment, a target of ridicule by the system which wishes to conceal its secrets.
Jews maim the body formed in the image of “god”, and inflicted circumsision upon all other white people, as well as the evil that is Jesus Christ.
I think about how Jews (were used to) created homosexuality among Slavics, retribution for the Holocaust.
Then I think of the Catholic Church and its troubles.
What connection is here between Jews and the Catholic church???
And if it is their sinister motives that’s behind the evil that is Jesus Christ are they being used at all?
Perhaps it is them who are pulling strings.
I believe Islam is the one true religion, and those misled christians who attack “god’s” most favored people will pay for it dearly one day.