Reading makes you realise the ultimate joy of knowledge

Strange things happen when you travel in public transport. Sometime ago, I was carrying a load of newspapers, magazines and a book, and was trying to go through them for a quick grasp while travelling in Delhi Metro. A middle-aged person who was sitting next to me was looking at me with a somewhat blank face. At last he could not but ask: “What do you get by reading all this?”

I failed to think of a reasonable response as I never expected such a query from anyone, least from a middle-aged person. Anyway, what I replied was derived from his own question: “I get what you get from not reading all this!” It seemed he was not satisfied with the answer; and stopped looking at me.

The problem is that many people do not consider reading habit as one of the best gifts that one can acquire. They don’t realise that for those who are what I call ‘readaholic’, reading is their lifeline. They can do without anything but not without reading as a daily habit. The beauty of reading is that it sets you free of many things, primarily of ignorance. Once you shed your ignorance, you embark on the way to the ultimate joy of satisfaction and happiness. Reading makes you rich, in fact richer than those who are millionaires and billionaires. After all, knowledge is the greatest gift one can possess. It enlightens you and you feel as if you are a citizen of the entire world. That is why American-Russian author Vera Nazarian says it so beautifully, “Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.”