Karuna Ezara Parikh on her magical affair with books.
I GIVE PEOPLE books like they’re going out of style. Actually, I give people books because they’re going out of style.
I’ve made ‘book-giving’ a sort of personal crusade. I don’t simply give to friends who read with hunger, I give them to everyone. I give people books in the hope that they will come over to the dark side.
I gift books with the confident knowledge that if they read the book that made me think of them, their lives (even if already perfect) will be just that tiny bit better. Because that’s what books do for me.
I’m like the annoying old aunt who gives you what she wants for Christmas, no matter what you asked for. I strive to make it something you will enjoy—magical short stories for my sister, Dalai Lama biographies for the spiritual, Japanese fiction for the quirky—but it is always a book.
I no longer buy books online. I know it’s cheaper and it’s easier too, but I actually like going to a bookstore. I like the pilgrimage: You pick a day, ask a friend, drive there, enter the cool, silent space, run your hands over spines, settle in for an hour or two, nodding to old friends (“Oh, hello there, Lolita new edition!”) and making some new ones along the way.
Perhaps you find my crusade extreme, but let me spell out Delhi’s literary losses over the last few years: It started with the closing of The Bookworm in Connaught Place and Yodakin in Hauz Khas Village. Then, last year, it was Fact & Fiction, Spell & Bound, Timeless Arts Book Studio and ED Galgotia & Sons. You can’t blame me for feeling it is the end of an era. Not simply the era of booksellers and patient old fools, but the end of The Age of Reading itself.
Bu hikaye Reader's Digest India dergisinin July 2016 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Reader's Digest India dergisinin July 2016 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
From the King's Table to Street Food: A Food History of Delhi
Pushpesh Pant, one of India’s pre-eminent food writers, is back with a comprehensive food history of the capital.
Who Wants Coffee?
It’s bitter—but beloved around the world
Prevent The Pain Of Shingles
You don't have to suffer, as long as you take two important steps
The Best And Worst Diets For Your Heart
Dozens of diets are touted as ‘best’, but it’s easy to lose track of the fact that healthy eating needs to be about overall wellness, not just weight loss.
ME & MY SHELF
Journalist Sopan Joshi has worked in a science and environment framework for nearly three decades. His book Mangifera indica: A Biography of the Mango (Aleph Book Company) synthesizes the sensory appeal of India's favourite fruit with its elaborate cultural roots and natural history. He writes in English and Hindi.
SWITCHED
In 1962, nurses at a small Canadian hospital sent home two women with the wrong babies. Then, 50 years later, their children discovered the shocking mistake.
ECHOES OF THE PAST
A VISIT TO THE ANCIENT BARABAR CAVES IN BIHAR REVEALS A SURPRISING CONNECTION TO A LITERARY CLASSIC
Fathers of the Bride
A young woman finds a unique way to honour the many men who helped her survive her childhood
Fiction's Foresight
British-Bangladeshi author Manzu Islam's works reveal startling parallels to recent political upheavals in Bangladesh, begging the question: Besides helping us make sense of our world, can stories also offer a glimpse into the future?
It Happens ONLY IN INDIA
The Divine Defence Picture this: A tractor in Rajasthan‘s Banswara district,a group of loan agents closing in to seize it and the defaulting farmer and his family standing by.
