A few months back, a friend had asked her bibliophile friends to write about what hooked them to reading. Here is what I had replied back then..
Fans of the late Jagjit Singh might recognize the following lines by Nida Fazli
Dhoop Mein Niklo Ghataon Mein Nahakar Dekho
Zindagi Kya Hai Kitaabon ko Hata Kar Dekho
A rough English translation, at the expense of losing the rhyme, would be: Head out in the sun, get drenched in the rain: look beyond books if you want to experience life)
For about three-quarters of my life (till about the age of twenty four), I took these works literally. I was not averse to books, but reading was limited to newspapers (I started reading them at twelve and gave up by fourteen, they just didn't excite me anymore), textbooks (I memorized them front to back to be able to tackle any potential questions in the exams) and General Knowledge books.
I felt reading was a waste of time. The only genuine experiences one could have were by interacting with the real world. By some unlucky coincidence, there was a bunch of girls in school who were avid readers and snobs of the first grade, and I ended up correlating the two.
