Reading

Here is an amusing take on Reading by the executive editor of The Indian Express, Raj Kamal Jha, while being interviewed by The Hindu correspondent on his latest novel Fireproof (based on the Gujarat riots). On being quizzed "At a book discussion once, you said it was unrealistic to expect many people to read. Why?"

He replies, "See, the few people who are damaged enough to love reading are essentially those who are comfortable with solitude. Also, reading forces you to have both imagination and empathy - two troubling things - so you see a bit of yourself in anything you read. And to expect all of us to be like that is ridiculous."

An empty feeling

One was badly bogged down by an intense empty feeling one of these days, before he ended up staring at a googled page, set-up by some SOON Ministries. Some of the material looked interesting, especially the questions, if not the answers. A part of the write-up went thus...

'The Big Needs: Many have tried to find real meaning for their lives, in a hundred different ways. Others have given up, and said, "There is no answer, there is no meaning." But for our lives to have meaning and purpose, we must find answers. A solution is needed that can answer each of my problems, something that really works.

1. I need something that can help me handle life better
2. I need a new power to stop doing things I know are bad for me and others
3. I need strength to act in a new way
4. I need some way of dealing with my past - the hurtful things that have happened to me, and the things I realise now I did wrong, that have hurt me or others
5. I need real answers to the purpose of life - why I am here, and what is my life for
6. I need something for that space in my life that nothing else has filled
7. I need friendship in my life - a trustworthy relationship so that I am never alone
8. I need a way of taking important life decisions
9. I need something to take away fear - fear of the past, the future, bad luck, ancestors, spirits, death - all those things we try to forget.

We have found such a solution. We have found the missing piece of the jigsaw that makes everything else fit together. We ask you to consider the solution. It may not seem believable to you at first. You may feel that it cannot be for you.

The Big Answer, is this:
1. There is a creator God - He made everything for a purpose
2. He is a real person, not just sort of power or force in the world
3. It is possible to find Him and know Him
4. He has made a way for this to happen
5. He sent Jesus to live on the earth, to show us what God is like
6. He loves you more than you can imagine
7. He has a plan for your own life '

More on this can be found in the link that I've listed in the 'links' section on the side bar.