Change!

I never had an habit of reading books. Sometimes, I read news headlines on internet or newspapers etc. apart from technical references which I needed in my job, I never read any books from start to end. I was a complete TV buff, a couch potato! I have watched TV for more that five hours a day, some times whole day and night. May be, I am fond of stories, and TV was one easy medium which is full of stories, from news channels to daily soaps, from movies to documentaries. All that at a press of a remote’s button. I don’t remember when and how I got addicted so badly to TV. Addiction increased exponentially with the time. May be I have too less friends, thanks to my recluse, introvert nature; whom I can go out, spend some time. Reading books was always something which I wanted to do, but not sure what stopped me going to store and picking up a book and just reading it. It was as simple as that. I always postponed it to next day, weekend or even next month. May be I became too lazy or I was too much in the comfort zone and was not ready for any change. Some where in my mind, I always knew, I had to get rid of this malady.

One day, me and my wife decided to go out for dinner. In the evening we went to nearby restaurant, it was weekend and as always in Pune, the restaurant was overcrowded and there was waiting. Waiter of the restaurant appended my name in his waiting list and told us it would take 30 min for the table. To kill the time, we went to the next shop named Crossword. I went straight to movies section and started looking for movies. I picked some DVDS and went to next section of Marathi/regional books. I picked up a first book from P.L Desphande aka. Pula named “Vyakti anni Walli”. The book was collection of short stories about various characters which pula met in his life. I had watched old recording of pula’s program on TV, in which Pula himself had read few of the stories. I had loved it, that time. Don’t know, why but I bought the book. I went home and read few pages and began to like it, may be it was pula’s magic which kept me interested, I felt that I was actually living the characters while I was reading the book. I read one character after another till the end and enjoyed thoroughly. The difference between television and books is, with TV you see what other fellow wants you to see, but while reading books, it’s totally depends on your imagination, the way you conceive the book. I read almost all the popular books from pula and also some other books. Currently am accompanying Shantaram in his eternal journey of living. I hardly watch TV these days. Whenever I reach home, when I have spare time, I make sure I give preference to books rather than TV. My love towards stories continues, just the medium has changed.