'Once you learn to read, you will be forever free’

I started reading books when I was a kid. Started with comics like champak and tinkle digest and now J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown are my best friends. My grandfather inculcated this habit in me, and I can’t be grateful enough. I come across a lot of people generally who are looking for answers and perspective in their lives but are so confused and clueless as to where to look for them. Reading books, of any and every-kind for that matter provides you with a lot of unfathomable perspectives. You get a chance to step into the shoes of others and see the world through their eyes. Well, it is generally human nature to think that ‘I am right’, but it takes a lot of courage for someone to step on the other side of the line and be considerate about what others might go through. Reading different characters and people, fictional or not would help you inculcate this tolerance and acceptance towards others.

A lot of us are actually dreadful at making friends. It’s hard for us to socialize, but also we aren’t lonely. Of course, we can’t be, we are social animals we can't just keep to ourselves all the time. Reading books not only gives you a better perspective but also creates a whole new world inside your head. Space; which is an escape to you from the horns of the sleepless cities to the silence of the hills which gets deafening sometimes. It is therapeutic to your mind and body; it gives you peace and adventure at the same time. Reading not only helps you heal yourself but also gives you an option to connect to people or stories which are just so out of your reach in real-life; or are just fictional. When you see yourselves spilled in the pages by a different name, your story gets a voice. The feeling that was messing with your head for such a long time, you see it get the power of words; it gives you validation and a medium of expression to the world. As it is rightly said by Frederick Douglass, ‘Once you learn to read, you will be forever free’.