Realisation of my poverty

 "How poor am l!" - this question arose in my mind. This feeling had never come to my mind before. But today the feeling of poverty had become dense in my heart. Before this, in such a situation, I used to feel encouraged. I used to feel enthusiastic, but today this feeling came to my mind for the first time. I was a little startled. But then I realized that it is true.  "Indeed I am poor!"

_(Picture generated with the help of Artificial Intelligence)_

This is from about two years ago. I had gone to Nashik. At that time I went to a book exhibition there. In the exhibition, thousands of books in English and Marathi were displayed. Of those, I had read only a few books, while I had seen some books or at least had some information about them. So a thought suddenly came to my mind that, "Books are wealth. But even though the books I have read so far are many, they are very few compared to the thousands of books here. And if we consider the total number of books in the world, they are very negligible. In terms of literary wealth, we are poor." That was my thought about my poverty.

My father, Late Shivling Gade, did not have much interest in reading books. But he used to read the daily newspaper regularly. 'Shyamchi Aai' is the only book he had read, to my knowledge. The love for reading books came into me and my younger brother from our mother, Late Nanda Gade. Generally, my attention is quickly drawn to words. If a picture and some text are seen at the same time in front of me, my attention is drawn more towards the words - this has been my usual experience.

I have been reading books since my early childhood. Whenever I get a new book, I am eager to finish reading it quickly. While studying engineering in Satara, I had taken membership of the Nagar Vachanalaya (City Library) there. I remember going there once or twice in the evening to exchange a book that I had taken in the morning. But since there was a rule that a borrowed book cannot be returned on the same day, I had to return it the next day.

When I start reading a book, many times my entire attention is on the book. Once, when I was a child, I was sitting and reading in our shop. An acquaintance came and stood there. A few minutes passed like that but I did not realize that he had come. Finally, when he called out, I noticed him. I have had similar experiences a few more times.

I have read many types of books like stories, novels, plays, biographies, autobiographies, historical, scientific stories. I have not read books of just one particular type. My reading is free-flowing, for my own joy. There is one person in my acquaintance whose reading is very disciplined. His practice is to take one author and read his books one after another in order. I, however, cannot do that. I read whatever I get or like or whatever someone suggests.

While reading a book, some incidents or points are easily remembered. Some things are forgotten. For this, notes should be taken while reading a book. That is useful. But once you start taking notes, the speed of reading slows down. So there is a tendency not to take notes. One more thing that can be done is that after reading a book, you should tell someone what was written in it. This is a good way to revise.

Swami Vivekananda has said that if a reader has three things - concentration, practice and celibacy - then he can read quickly. In Swamiji's biography, at least three incidents of how fast Swamiji could read have been written down by his brother-disciples and disciples. Swamiji's statement is based on his own experience. I heard from a famous actor many years ago that Bharat Ratna Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar also had mastered the art of reading rapidly. That is why both these great men had read thousands of books. In comparison, my reading is less.

But some people keep trying to reduce my poverty. On the occasion of some program or for some other reason, they gift me a book. Then a few more get added to the reading list. I jokingly say, "Just as a magnet attracts iron, I am a book-magnet. Books get attracted towards me. They come walking to me." This is my experience of being poor.

Sudhir Gade, Pune

(If you liked the article, please forward it. No separate permission is required for that.)

(AI Translation)