The Indian journalist and writer Khushwant Singh was once asked about the importance of books in life. His reply came in a melange of Hindi and Urdu, pure Hindustani: A home which has no books has ghor andhera- pitch darkness. In homes where there is only one book, everyone living in it is like a one-eyed kaana. Homes where there are plenty of books, there is ujalaa hee ujaala -lots of light. You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Perhaps Aldous Huxley said it in a terse statement, 'The proper study of mankind is books.
There can be little doubt that a home without books is symbolic of dismal darkness. What is to blame? Or who is to blame? When a major section of our population is half-literate and most others can't afford to buy books, we don't see the picture improving. One may wonder what Francis Bacon would write today, more than four hundred years after his essay 'Of Studies'. The opening words: 'Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament is in discourse; and for ability is in the judgement and disposition of business.' His wit went further: 'Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.' Then came the delineation: Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
