FYI, Machines can read too

I am not sure if the question to be asked is “Why do we read?” or “What do we read?”

A couple of weeks ago at the Azim Premji School in Yadgir, we had a book review presentation as part of the Weekly Teacher’s Assembly schedule. I had volunteered to review one book. I chose Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland primarily because it has been a source of imaginative triggers for children all over the world for 150 years. The story began with Alice’s lament:

`and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?’

This is one of the most commonly heard excuses for the lack of interest in reading. I myself experienced this as a child and never quite understood why I was told to go and read a book if I complained of “being bored”. I found reading to be an utterly boring activity once I had exhausted myself with the few basic books (that had pictures, of course) that I was fond of. I find a similar reluctance with the children in school too. They aren’t particularly interested even in illustrated books and I wondered if the stories do not relate much to their lives or worlds; or whether reading words is difficult, or whether their inquiries don’t yet compel them enough to labour through text.

I developed a genuine appetite for reading only when I was 30. A lot of reading I did before that are only hazy memories. The act of reading was more of an absurd obligation to cultural expectations around me. What was missing during those years was the element of identification with what I was reading. That only started in recent years when I was able to link my own life experiences with the voices in books. This shift was profound because books started connecting me to a world where I discovered so much meaning, and simultaneously opened up multiple perspectives through the written word, visual documentaries, oral histories and films. I started re-reading a lot of literature that I read as a child and expectedly saw them in completely new light. Many books that I had enjoyed in my teens seemed rather bland and I discovered new authors who I hold very close to my heart. The access to diverse content has also been facilitated by the internet.

The problem I see with the “reading habit” is the overt emphasis on regularity and an assumption that it is universally desired. Instead, what is required is access to libraries of books, films, games and visuals that are rich in variety and exposure, in the same way that children need safe public spaces to find friends they can relate to and expand their social understanding. There is really no point in reading, when what you read has no connection with either your lived experiences or even your fantasies. The challenge has always been in finding meaning. Developing the ability to read meaning is entirely independent of the habit of reading books, or of literacy.

Malavika Rajnarayan,

Fellow, Yadgir District Institute, Azim Premji Foundation