As I skimmed through the pages of Mathrubhumi daily one news came to my notice.Kerala Govt.observes June 19th as Vayana Dinam (Reading Day) and the week from 19th to 25th as Vayana Varam (Reading Week).This will be celebrated with different programs and competitions in schools and colleges.
I remember how we used to observe the day in our school days.There would be an assembly in the morning before the commencement of the class.The head mistress would announce ,"Its my pleasure to inform you all that today is 'the great reading day' ( I don't know why she used to decorate everything with a 'great' , 'happy','successful'....kinda adjectives.).Our 'uschool' too is taking part in this event(She pretended to be an epitome of discipline in conduct and academics , but she could ne'er ever pronounce the word school properly.She said 'uschool ' in every assembly and gave us a chance to exchange smiles which resembled some emoticons in my office communicator.Ooh !! yeah, you are right .I had many more issues with the head mistress.Used to criticise her for every this and that , as I was Miss.Perfect.).Then another teacher , probably a Malayalam teacher, will talk about the importance of reading habit and books for another half an hour.He 'd highlight the impacts of Television on children since TV is said to be the enemy of books.And by the end of this assembly ,ends our 'reading day'. School library was some thing we had to 'discover' ourselves.Really , that was the case.One of my friend happened to see some book shelves in the distant corner of the staff room and we kept asking about it and a teacher revealed us its the so called school library.And we started borrowing books from there.
In college there was a small shelf in which books of fiction stood embarrassed in the huge library which gave space to technical stuff only.
Most of the reading day programs start with a mourn on the death of reading habit among today's youth.Yes , TV, the Internet and such electronic medias are alternate means of entertainment.But it doesn't mean the community that reads give up their interest .Just a look at the best seller statistics shows still there are people who love reading ( And do count the pirated book lovers like me too)and they find time for that.I too have half read books waiting for my return to the book mark , but that doesn't mean I gave up reading.More over , The Internet opens windows to the wide world of letters and words. Blogosphere stands as the best example of that.
There will be people who adore the paths through which books (printed or e-books) leads them and luxuriate in the magic of words till the end of this world . Even though the scenario is like this , it is good to have a special day or week which reminds us about the existence of such a habit as part of us .Long live reading.
