For Amdavadis, printed word holds an irreplaceable charm
The adage – ‘Wear the old coat and buy a new book' — goes very well for Amdavadi bookworms who are still hooked to the woody aroma of the printed pages. These bibliophagists appreciate Kindle, but say digitisation cannot replace the charm of printed words. dna’s Himali Doshi finds out how the city-folk declare their undying love for printed books on Book Lovers Day
‘Begin reading today and change your life’
Brajesh Bajpai, business head, Vodafone Ltd Gujarat, owns a 1,500-book library. An active blogger on http://whichbooknext.blogspot.in, he and wife Karishma summarise and rate the books they read across all genres. ‘My library grew naturally when my wife Karishma brought home her own large collection of books,” he says revealing how he thought of making a library. “The print form is being challenged by lower costs and easy accessibility of e-books, but will survive for its own unique reasons,” he says with hope. His favourite author is Devdutt Pattnaik whose “Mahabharata” he rates highly, with all its renditions, versions and speculative fiction.
‘Read books and let your imagination soar’
“When my family moved from Sindh, my grandmother brought with her only a few clothes but a trunk full of books,” says Prakash Ramrakhiani who has a 5,000-book library which he calls 'Danai' meaning 'knowledge' in Greek. His love for books soared when he began receiving books as a prize for standing first in class.” His favourite authors are PG Woodhouse, W Dalrymple, John LeCarre and Frederick Forsyth. That books would be redundant soon was speculated even 20 years ago, he remembers and feels e-books can never replace the smell of fresh paper or the charm of holding a book in the hand. His message for the young is that they should read all genres to develop mind and thought.
‘Food for thought weighs more than food for stomach’
Founder of 'The Riverside School', Ahmedabad, Kiran Bir Sethi has about 1,000 books in her personal library. Lending and borrowing books was an essential the part of growing up she remembers and insists that parents should encourage their kids to make their own collection. Though she loves e-books she says, reading printed books gives her unparalleled pleasure. “Youngsters read a lot of stuff on social networking sites, but they need to be inspired to read books” she says. Among her favourite books are 'The difficulty of being good' by Guru Charan Das and MK Gandhi's 'My experiments with truth'.
Published Date: Aug 11, 2014
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