The shelves once filled with books are now empty. The parents or grandparents showing books with colorful pictures and telling them stories was a common scene during our childhood. Children were interested in reading rather than playing video games. The parents (especially father) were used to take us to public libraries when they have free time. I still remember that my father used to take me to the library near by on every Saturday. Reading books by sitting on the bench in front of the library was such a nice experience. According to Marcus Tullius Cicero, a room without books is like a body without a soul. The smell of old paper has not yet gone from my mind.
By reading books, we will be imagining all parts of the story, poem or whatever it is. While imagining, we are using both our mind and brain which is the most advantage of reading books. The ability of creative thinking is getting developed by reading books. Last year while I am doing my PG, we (me and my hostel-mates) casted our minds back to the fairy tale books and other story books we loved growing up. I've used to re-read the books even during my teenage to recollect that inner experience that we gain from the words. Reading habit was a dominant one during my childhood in such a way that almost all used to read the books only once sailing from one to other. I was a bookworm during my childhood. I used to go for the book exhibition conducted yearly in my hometown. I always spent my free time reading any books cover to cover during that time. I've collected some of the physical traits of the books that we all had that may take you to those nostalgic time of reading.
Kalikkudukka: A Malayalam language magazine by manorama group. Magazine covers scientific lessons and funny tales.
Balabhumi: Malayalam comic magazine by Matrubhumi Printing & Publishing. It covers puzzles, cartoon, comics and other children stories.
Mayavi: A comic strip in Balarama magazine. This tells a series of stories about a good imp (mayavi), a dark wizard (kuttoosan) and a witch (dakini).
Children's Digest: Magazine that contains comics, puzzles, fiction pieces and nonfiction articles. The pages were given a light greenish tint.
Tinkle Digest: An Indian magazine consisting of quiz, puzzles, comics. This digest introduced the characters Suppandi and Shikari Shambu.
Tales of Tenali Raman: A book that is generally known for the humor and brilliance of a Telugu poet, Tenali Ramakrishna.
Akbar-Birbal Stories: An Indian historical comic book that aims at teaching valuable lessons.
Today these books are born digital and readers have changed to digital readers. Even the percentage of digital readers is shrinking now a days. According to government analysis, the percentage of readers went down from 75% to 42%. Children are reading books only to pass their school or university level examination. Not only children but adults are also away from the reading habit. People read all day long. But what ? People are highly addicted to the words delivered by Google, Twitter, Whatsapp and Facebook. Parents who are busy either with their job or with checking emails and other text messages are blaming the technologies for the decline in their kid's reading habit. Even though the rise in technology has a key role in declining the reading habit among children, the major ones responsible for this decline are the parents. A research among Indian children says that those who started reading during their infant period are more interested in reading. I believe that it is the responsibility of parents to create a culture at home that can cultivate the reading habit. Parents should help the kids in valuing reading. Reading to kids from their young age is the best way to develop the reading habit. Parents should also make sure that their adult children are reading newspaper daily. They should also promote their children to take membership in public libraries near by.
Once the children are away from the preschool age, the teachers are their next role models. Only a teacher can learn the curiosity in children to know the surrounding and whatever he/she likes. By understanding this curiosity, the teacher can arrange many classroom strategies like book talks that develop life lasting reading habit. A teacher can teach students why to read, how to read and what to read. The teacher can also help the children to read their own choice of book. With the aid of a school library and providing a reading hour atleast twice in a week, the reading habit can be developed among children. During the college days, the students are always busy with their projects, assignments and exams which shrinks their reading to their subject related books. Many professional and non professional government colleges in India restrict the access to library books based on caste. I studied in Govt. Engineering College and when I visited the college library for the first time, the librarian told me not to pick books placed on last two racks as those are accessible only to SC/ST students. These kind of restrictions must be avoided. The libraries must promote reading habits irrespective of caste or gender. Understaffed and underfunded academic libraries are also a hindrance to explore the reading habit. Even though the colleges are providing a large library facility, the librarian has a role in student's reading habit. Every student have a different taste in books. Yet, the librarian can somehow ensure that the tastes of almost all are satisfied.
Even some book talks among the students will lead to know the taste on books in others. I still remember that an accidental book talk with one of my colleague let him know my taste in reading. Knowing my taste, he suggested and gave me a collection of books he had in digital form. But once I started reading those books one by one, I was very much interested in reading the paper version of those digital books and now I have collected the paper books of almost all. Youth are spending a major part of time with their friends. Friends can make a huge influence in their thoughts and can thus sort out the types of books they are interested in. Friends with common taste in reading can share the books and can maintain the reading habit. Once we are out of our college life, we will be busy with our family life and professional life. Today, with an aim of hanging to the reading habit, many residential colonies are arranging a week long reading programs. I was also a part of such programs a few years ago. Many jobless women are reading novels and other monthly & weekly magazines. Professional men are reading materials related to their work and are not exploring the reading world due to time limits. A survey by the Department of Library shows that only 3.5% of total work force are reading during week days and 5.5% are reading on weekends. Old aged women are more interested in reading religious books. Grandmother reading Mahabharatha or Ramayana sitting in front of house is an unfading scene in Kerala. The reading habits differ in different communities of people. Reading is also affected by age, education level, life pattern and so on.
Once the spark begins, it is impossible to dislodge the reading habit. Though e-books are helpful in current life and the coming generation will automatically indulge in digital reading, we should not completely avoid the habit of reading paper books. We all should take effort to make the next generation aware of the importance of reading paper books. The taste may differ as one grow and different people pick up different books for different reasons. But the intention to opt and read book of any taste can be made only from the budding age.
"The early bird gets the worm."
Kalikkudukka: A Malayalam language magazine by manorama group. Magazine covers scientific lessons and funny tales.
Balabhumi: Malayalam comic magazine by Matrubhumi Printing & Publishing. It covers puzzles, cartoon, comics and other children stories.
Mayavi: A comic strip in Balarama magazine. This tells a series of stories about a good imp (mayavi), a dark wizard (kuttoosan) and a witch (dakini).
Children's Digest: Magazine that contains comics, puzzles, fiction pieces and nonfiction articles. The pages were given a light greenish tint.
Tinkle Digest: An Indian magazine consisting of quiz, puzzles, comics. This digest introduced the characters Suppandi and Shikari Shambu.
Tales of Tenali Raman: A book that is generally known for the humor and brilliance of a Telugu poet, Tenali Ramakrishna.
Akbar-Birbal Stories: An Indian historical comic book that aims at teaching valuable lessons.
Once the children are away from the preschool age, the teachers are their next role models. Only a teacher can learn the curiosity in children to know the surrounding and whatever he/she likes. By understanding this curiosity, the teacher can arrange many classroom strategies like book talks that develop life lasting reading habit. A teacher can teach students why to read, how to read and what to read. The teacher can also help the children to read their own choice of book. With the aid of a school library and providing a reading hour atleast twice in a week, the reading habit can be developed among children. During the college days, the students are always busy with their projects, assignments and exams which shrinks their reading to their subject related books. Many professional and non professional government colleges in India restrict the access to library books based on caste. I studied in Govt. Engineering College and when I visited the college library for the first time, the librarian told me not to pick books placed on last two racks as those are accessible only to SC/ST students. These kind of restrictions must be avoided. The libraries must promote reading habits irrespective of caste or gender. Understaffed and underfunded academic libraries are also a hindrance to explore the reading habit. Even though the colleges are providing a large library facility, the librarian has a role in student's reading habit. Every student have a different taste in books. Yet, the librarian can somehow ensure that the tastes of almost all are satisfied.
Even some book talks among the students will lead to know the taste on books in others. I still remember that an accidental book talk with one of my colleague let him know my taste in reading. Knowing my taste, he suggested and gave me a collection of books he had in digital form. But once I started reading those books one by one, I was very much interested in reading the paper version of those digital books and now I have collected the paper books of almost all. Youth are spending a major part of time with their friends. Friends can make a huge influence in their thoughts and can thus sort out the types of books they are interested in. Friends with common taste in reading can share the books and can maintain the reading habit. Once we are out of our college life, we will be busy with our family life and professional life. Today, with an aim of hanging to the reading habit, many residential colonies are arranging a week long reading programs. I was also a part of such programs a few years ago. Many jobless women are reading novels and other monthly & weekly magazines. Professional men are reading materials related to their work and are not exploring the reading world due to time limits. A survey by the Department of Library shows that only 3.5% of total work force are reading during week days and 5.5% are reading on weekends. Old aged women are more interested in reading religious books. Grandmother reading Mahabharatha or Ramayana sitting in front of house is an unfading scene in Kerala. The reading habits differ in different communities of people. Reading is also affected by age, education level, life pattern and so on.
Once the spark begins, it is impossible to dislodge the reading habit. Though e-books are helpful in current life and the coming generation will automatically indulge in digital reading, we should not completely avoid the habit of reading paper books. We all should take effort to make the next generation aware of the importance of reading paper books. The taste may differ as one grow and different people pick up different books for different reasons. But the intention to opt and read book of any taste can be made only from the budding age.
"The early bird gets the worm."
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