Reading

Joy of Reading!

My mother used to tell stories in my childhood. When I started reading in my childhood, my favorite stories were of “Dastan-e-Amir Hamza, Omro Ayyar,, Tarzan, Heidi and many more. I grew up seeing books of my father and mother at my home. My elder brothers and sisters all were book lovers and all used to add in the shelves of reading room frequently. We had different shelves full of books and my one brother turned one room into a library. I always dreamt of my own library one day, which is fulfilled now by the grace of God. I possess many books of my father’s collections, in some with his name embossed on. I am proud to have them. As we siblings got on different paths of life, each one of us selected favorite books from his collection. Then frequently I kept on adding as I come across any new book that I like. Book reading is my favorite pastime as I listened to my favorite music while reading so it’s a double joy!

Seeing elders reading and preserving can inculcate this habit of book reading in any child who sees books around and learns the values of books. During the days of Dow Medical College, I had so much to study from the textbooks that I read other books less and I regret that but now I can read whatever I want to. So I think anyone can read a lot more than me in his/her lifetime.

I love reading humor by my favorite Shafiq-ur-Rehman, Colonel Muhammad Khan, Patrus Bukhari, Ibn-e- Insha, Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi. I equally like Qudratullah Shahab, Mumtaz Mufti, Masood Mufti, Sadat Hassan Manto, Ashfaq Ahmed, Bano Qudsia, Ghulam Abbas, and many others.

In Urdu poetry I love Ghalib and Iqbal and I have multiple dewans of different publishing houses.

Now in this era of Internet I can download books and keep them in my iPad archives and read whenever I have time, but still I enjoy more when the book is in my hands and I can turn its leaf over!