Learning happened to us in two ways: Listening and Reading. The moment you read these two terms, you definitely feel that these are the forgotten ones. We do not listen for many reasons. We do not read for one reason only! The reason for NOT READING is actually NOT READING.
Learning happened to us in two ways: Listening and Reading. The moment you read these two terms, you definitely feel that these are the forgotten ones. We do not listen for many reasons. We do not read for one reason only! The reason for NOT READING is actually NOT READING.
When we read, we shall end up developing an interest in this exercise of learning by Self. When we explain and understand the concept of Eklavyaism and EklavyaParv, the fundamental understanding is that 'You Create Yourself' and once we know that it is actually WE, not others, we can start living.
Reading used to be important and integrated into the educational structure for ages. It got lost when the modern methods of learning made their way to the classroom. The technological intervention was not supposed to remove the direct interaction, but it did. Teachers could not reach the students via Screen and the DARKNESS. The advent of PPT and SmartScreens has left a scar on the mind. We abandoned Reading because we got fascinated with the digital flavour. Because Reading demands involvement and effort, it was all the easier to shun it away.
What has happened as an outcome of this loss? We have invented a new genre of reception which is labelled as Reading but does not qualify to be one. We are fond of reading summaries or we skip and scan everything. We sit less to relish and more to cram or just go through the pages. The merriment and joy of learning have gone far. Reading which has been known as an ART is no more than an Activity or a Skill.
At the School level, you all are doing the reading or have done. What is missing there? The involvement with the text, skill development and sense of accomplishment is not there anymore. Teachers do the ritual of asking you to read-only when it is a marked day in the calendar. You read as if you are robots. None connects with what is written. Loud Reading in the classroom is missing. Wrong Pronunciations are learned and faulty accents and intonations are followed.
My advice to the Learner is that Reading does have the power to make you competent to speak and teach. We cannot travel the whole world. We cannot meet the great scholars who are no more. We cannot get enough time from the legends to hear them. But, we can read them and through books, we get connected to their presence. You read Marx, Gandhi, Dickens, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Sadhguru, Coelho, Hemingway, Orwell, Kafka, Kalidas, JaiShankarPrasad, Pant, Nirala, Mahadevi Verma, Bachchan or Ghalib, Momin or Bach, and J.K. Rowling... All Will Add To Your Being!
What We are Today is the Result of Our Yesterdays. Our Reading shall make our future sustain the test of the time. Being students at schools, colleges, and universities, you shall learn to learn through reading. Books will develop your stamina to sit for long hours and that will help in intensive academic reading for exams as well. Do see Reading as a Life-Long Interest rather than an age-caged hobby which can be thrown away once you get to another attraction.
The day when you hold a book in your hands, you get possession of something precious. The day you gift a book that you loved reading, you form a bond of humanity. After all, being civilised does mean being educated, not just literate.
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” : Groucho Marx
Let's Use our Literacy for the Actual thing it was made for: READING!
Let's Get Back to Books! They Are Waiting!
