Ludhiana's People and Their Aversion to Reading

chillibreeze writer — Sanjeev Bedi

If we believe in Sir Richard Steele’s saying “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body”, we ought to agree that a man who says he has no time for reading is committing a sort of intellectual suicide. What he says doesn’t make more sense than the man who says, “I don’t have time to eat”

What kind of reading culture pervades our beloved city of Ludhiana? Does the city have any people who derive as much pleasure reading a good book as they would partaking of a sumptuous dinner? The general feeling one gets interacting with a cross-section of city residents is that majority of Ludhianvis have come to think of reading within an academic context. Reading is relegated to the domain of schools and colleges. “Why should I read books now? Reading is something that you did in schools and colleges, isn’t it? I am not a college kid anymore!” avers Pardeep, a readymade garment showroom owner in Civil Lines.

Why is that Ludhiana, though commercially progressing in leaps and bounds isn’t inculcating in its inhabitants a love for more subtle pleasures in life such as reading? Is it our pace of life, fast-tracked and exigent as it is? Are we so caught up in the ceaseless whirl of our lives that we can’t withdraw from it for a while to the calm serenity of reading a masterpiece by a great author? Milton described a great book as “the precious life blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life”. As we take up a book, we are released from the prison of our immediate neighborhood. Books transport us to a different world—a world we never knew existed—unburdening many of our anxieties, unclamping our mental processes and broadening our outlook to enable us to look at things from entirely new perspectives. The cultural historian, Jacques Barzun, sees reading as the essential stimulus in creating a “well-made self”—the most fully realised, perfect you that you can be. Reading can accomplish this because it speaks to our imagination and thus provides an antidote to the daily grind that can narrow the mind and stifle the spirit, says Barzun. So even as a business proposition, time spent in reading is not time lost , but time won.

“Ludhianvis don’t have time to read because they’re too busy making money!,” says Rajeev, a CA student. Tajinder Pal Singh, owner of Sardar Stores, Ghumar Mandi echoes similar views. “The total offtake of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix from our shop is 25 copies,” informs Singh. But he admits that even that is partly attributable to the media hype generated around the book. People bought the book more out of a sense of “obligation” than any real desire to read it for the sake of reading it. We had a similar hype in 1997 when Arundhati Roy won the Booker Prize. People were clamoring for a copy of The God Of Small Things. Unlike Patiala and Chandigarh, we don’t have genuine readership in Ludhiana. Ludhianvis are more fond of the Internet than books, opines Singh.

Ruchika, the gracious girl in charge of Shingora’s Own Book Shop, situated in Ghumar Mandi and owned by French-born lady Isabelle Jain, admits that there isn’t any monetary lure in running the bookstore. “There is hardly any readership in Ludhiana. On an average we sell about 5 copies a day. But I have 20 to 25 regular patrons,” she informs. A perusal of the sales figures notched by various popular books shows that Ludhianvis are fonder of self-improvement books than works of fiction. Ruchika claims to have sold 1000 copies of How To Win by Shiv Khera and 500 copies each of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, a book on the man-woman relationship by John Gray, and Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson. The bulky Harry Potter found its way into 19 homes from this store. Shingora’s is the only Rupa & Co. franchised store in Ludhiana. Gurdev Singh, who is a wholesale book dealer operating from Surya Kiran Building, Mall Road, says he abandoned the idea of setting up a huge book store in a prime location. He was daunted by the collapse of Ebony’s Book shop, Wordsworth, which was inaugurated amidst great fanfare by Shobha De’ two years back.

So is our city becoming an intellectual wasteland? Aren’t there enough people who would read a book for the sheer delight of reading it? “I have always loved books. I have a collection of around 100 books. My favourite is Many Lives, Many Masters by Dr Brian Weiss. Right now, I am waiting to lay my hands on Hillary Clinton’s “Living History”, says Aarti Bansal, a CA employed with an MNC. On the other hand Vishal Gupta, a lawyer, when asked about his reading hobbies had this to say, “Do you want me to go on reading all my life?” Reading, as I said earlier, is confused with academic pursuits abandoned long ago. There are any number of people in Ludhiana who simply don’t see any reason why they should be spending time and money on such an idle pursuit. “What fayda would it to me? I am not vaila to indulge in such a boring and mundane thing as reading a book. I would rather buy a pair of shoes for myself than splash my money on a book.” This from Amit, an MCA.

What is the state of libraries in Ludhiana? The two main libraries, the PU Extension at Fountain Chowk and the MS Randhawa at PAU are mostly frequented by students looking for course books or simply a venue for dating. The number of private members registered with the Extension library is abysmally low. And the PAU library, which has a huge collection of books, restricts lending books to private members. So libraries aren’t the favorite hangouts of the Ludhianvis. They never were, and they never will be, it seems.

And yet our city residents are the most voracious readers of newspapers. All major newspapers have a city supplement. Ludhianvis just devour them like there is no tomorrow. Newspaper reading, unfortunately, is not contemplative. Merely glossing over the reports of happenings and events of the previous day does not bring about the intellectual gratification and enchantment that masterly, erudite prose would. It is also worth noting that when an engrossing book is televised and slicked up as a mushy soap opera, people would just lap it up like manna from heaven. We have seen that happening in the case of Tamas (Bhisham Sahni), Ek Chadar Maili See ( Rajinder Singh Bedi) and Eho Hamara Jeewna ( Dalip Kaur Tiwana). Even a re-run of Malgudi Days on TV would have people riveted to their screens for sure. But ask anyone to read the memorable book by R K Narayanan, all you’d get is a tiresome expression that sums up the Ludhianvis’ attitude to reading—such a drag, reading books! Watching a book on TV of course is such great fun. Since the idiot box isn’t interactive, you are saved from the horrible bother of summoning up your imagination and other intellectual faculties. Books unfortunately don’t afford that kind of luxury!

One finds it hard to believe that a city, which gave to the world a poet of the stature of Sahir Ludhianvi, has people with such appalling appreciation of things literary. Pursuits of reading and writing are too idle and pedestrian for our hard-working, fun-loving Ludhianvis. The world of books beckons so few of us that you can count them on your fingertips. The late Balwant Gargi once described Ludhiana as a city without a soul. He was obviously ruing the atrophy of our cultural and intellectual life over the decades. It is clear that our intellectual and culture development has not been concomitant with our industrial achievements. This is a sad commentary on the state of literary growth in the city.

Surjit Pattar, the renowned Panjabi Poet and litterateur and winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award, gets to the root of the malaise. He traces the lack of our literary development to the history of the Panjabi community. “The Panjabi tradition is rooted in struggle. Panjabis have had to fight for their place under the sun, right through the Mughal empire to the British Raj and down to the cataclysmic days of the 1980’s. Naturally a community which has gone through such turmoil had to have its psyche impacted by the events. Unlike in Bengal, the environment in Panjab was never conducive to literary and scholarly pursuits,” opines the learned scholar. So what ought we to do now? Pattar advises, “The people at the helm of affairs in Panjab ought to realize that mere economic development won’t suffice. Man isn’t a mere economic being. To create well-rounded individuals, we need to devote attention to developing all aspects of their personalities. A student studying engineering has got to learn that there is more to life than just engineering. The process has to be taken up at the primary level of learning—the schools. Conscientious teachers and other eminent people responsible for the propagation of education need to take up the responsibility for instilling in our children the value of reading books and the immense benefit they would do in the shaping of their personalities.”

So will there be a paradigm shift in the attitude of Ludhianvis? Will they realize what they are missing out, having shut themselves out from the world of books? Only time will tell. But permit me to sum up the Ludhianvis’ philosophy towards reading in a lyric:

To read in spring is treason;
And summer is sleep’s best season;
If winter hurries the fall,
Then stop till next spring season.

Chillibreeze's disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article.

Out of 5 “chilies”, our editorial team gave this article...

—About our writer:

Sanjeev says, "With the advent of e-mail, word text formats, et al, our calligraphy skills are fast decaying. I still miss—I am so grateful for MS Word's Spell-check and Replace All— dipping my quill pen in the black colly and scratching the parchment. What a wonderful sound it made!"

>> Read more articles written by Chillibreeze writers:

More resources for Writers on Chillibreeze.com

Chillibreeze offers Indian writers the opportunity to work on customer projects. We are also India’s biggest writer network and a one-stop shop for Indian writers and editors. The writers’ section on Chillibreeze offers freelance writers and editors a variety of tools to advance their careers. Resources for writers include:

Assessment of your writing, editing and proofreading skills

Writing courses

Expert Feedback on your article

An opportunity to promote yourself on our website

Top websites for Indian writers

Tips and resources for Indian freelancers

Book Publishing services

And more………………..

Explore our writers’ section using the links on our left-hand side menu.