Back when we were growing up, we didn’t have technology or internet or all that jazz to keep ourselves entertained. And growing up in the middle east hampered the idea of running off onto playgrounds to play every day. A whole lot of us lived like little broiler chickens in concrete jungles.
Those were the days of restricted TV times and when we had to wait for somebody to get off the phone to connect to the internet… and get off the internet when somebody wanted to use the phone too.
So reading was a BIG thing back then. Nearly everyone would read something or the other. School kids were never seen without a storybook in their bags or in their hands. It was taken for granted that everyone would be reading something. The question was never ‘do you read?’ It was always ‘what are you reading now?’
For a whole lot of us, reading took a back seat when marriages and children happened. I used to ask some of my friends who were true blue bookworms about what they were reading currently and they used to sigh and tell me that they don’t get time to read these days. I used to feel really sad for them. The way I remembered these girls was with every one of them poring over books the size of little pillows.
One day I read in a newspaper (or was it a Facebook article? I don’t remember) that several book lending libraries were shutting down because nobody read anything any more. I guess that was the trigger. That evening, I sent a WhatsApp message to some of my friends who used to be avid readers and asked them if they’d like to be a part of my book club. If they were interested, they just had to send me their email address. The response was far more positive than I expected.
I created a mailing list with the names of all the people who had informed me that they were in. I am an obsessive book hoarder and I don’t really have a correct count for the number of eBooks I have. Every Sunday I used to email them an eBook in PDF format. The body of the email would contain an image of the book cover, a brief synopsis of the book (from Goodreads or Amazon), and the book’s rating on Amazon.
For the first two or three weeks, nobody said anything other than an occasional ‘thanks’ from a couple of them. But I kept at it. Some of them sent me more email addresses to be added to the mailing list. I used to add a note at the bottom of the email requesting the recipient to please acknowledge receipt of the file in an uncorrupted form. Some people would reply with a curt ‘Received. Works fine.’ Some wouldn’t even bother.
But I kept sending the books every Sunday.
I had to leave for my vacation in a week and in the run up to my departure, I missed to send the weekly book on one Sunday. It was when I was in Kolkata that I received a message on WhatsApp from one of the girls asking if I had decided to stop sending books. I told her that I am in India and that I was busy and all that. I told her that I will send her a book that very evening after I got back to the hotel.
I had not checked my emails in almost a week and when I logged in, I was pleasantly surprised to find four other emails from different people asking me similar questions. Sharing excerpts from some of the messages here…
Raakhee, please don’t stop the books… I had grown so used to receiving them and when I opened my inbox on Sunday and didn’t find your email, my heart sank in despair.
I had quit reading after the kids arrived. Nowadays, I read the books you send me on my mobile when I’m commuting to work or when I’m waiting to pick the kids from school. Thank you so much for whatever you’re doing.
First you get me addicted again, and then you disappear. Not fair! Come back, my book fairy!
Did you forget our Sunday routine? Can’t wait to see what you’ll send next!
I wrote an email to all of them apologizing for the delay. i told them that I didn’t think anyone was even reading what I was sending them. But I did it anyway hoping that someday someone will find a book I sent them interesting and might start reading again.
Many of them replied to my email saying that they didn’t respond earlier because they were busy. They had all gotten back to reading, thanks to me they said. Two of them got themselves Kindles and I told them that I would send the books directly to their Kindles.
Even if one person had picked up reading again, I would have been glad. But here I seemed to have brought more than 20 people back to reading. I had nothing to lose. I have plenty of books and all I had to do was to email them a copy.
I have always been of the opinion that a person who reads lives several lives and not just one. This world would miss much if tomorrow’s generation chooses to shun reading in favor of gadgets and social media. It may not have been much, but when I think about that little thing I did by bringing at least 20 (?) people back to reading, I feel good about myself.
Not everyone can do really big things to bring about a notable change in this world. Some simple and unimportant people (like me) can still be happy doing something tiny like this and go to the grave tomorrow with a smile of satisfaction at having done something good.
What small thing can you do to make you feel like your life matters?
Raakhee on Quora 