Of reading and writing

I have been reading and studying, voraciously at times, happy-go-luckily at others, but the past few months have contributed to a swell of books at the bedside. 

I was tweeting a little earlier about the books I picked up today. Some on Anthropology as this subject seems to have caught my fancy lately and am very disappointed by the lack of resources on Indian Anthropology though I am sure there must have been enough and more works that have been published and which are I shall hazard to guess, are out of print today. Once a person begins something, starts something somewhere - and I refer to studying or reading up on a subject with an initial casual intent but as the interest picks up the urge to know more might eventually consume the 'student' to go to the very beginning of it all. So here I was wanting to read up about Tribes and cultures. And then going back to anthropology. And then thinking of Linguistics and realizing once again Anthropology I would have to go back to. You know, things like that.

And today, as I decided to go to Higginbothams, in addition to being disappointed about the lack of literature that I was looking for, I happened to chance upon this particular book on Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose titled 'Brothers against the Raj'. I have always been intrigued by Bose, just like I m sure, scores and scores of people before me. There is a perennial mystery about him. And I like the man. However I decided to know more about him than what the rudimentary books on Indian history spoke of. Once I got through the introduction, I realized rampantly available accounts of the freedom struggle that children grow up reading of doesn't speak much about Sarat Chandra Bose, as has been mentioned by the author. For that matter, after discussions and listening to some people, I have been given to understand that important contributions of countless others have not been properly documented and even if they were, have not been allowed to become 'popular'. I shall refrain from divulging more at this point because to even begin to speak of all that, I believe I need to do a lot more reading, form a solid opinion and then, perhaps, write about my opinion. 

The other book I picked up was Glimpses of Word History. Since this book is already very popular I think that's enough said. The only grouse that I might have with the book at the outset was I wish it had been a slightly easier-to-manage two-volume sort of a book. Its too huge to hold and read when its something to indulge in at leisure. It'd be impossible to carry it while traveling and I am sure it ll fall apart at some point before I am done with it. 

But this post is more of a sort of a thanksgiving. Why you might ask. Where is the thanks? Well, its coming up. Today I am thankful that I have had a sound education, for a sound background, for the inculcation of the beautiful habit of reading, for meeting people who believe in a healthy debate, for the food on my plate, for the roof over my head, for the car I drive and for being able to sing to make a living, for being able to invest in books with a part of my earnings, for being given the chance to expand my knowledge, expand the horizons of thinking and for a lot more. 

And also that I have a laptop, an internet connection oh, and power in Chennai, Tamilnadu to be able to type when the words sprung up in my mind's eye and hit publish as I have done in about 10.8 seconds after finishing this line. (Yup I don't give a once-over of any of the posts I have typed before hitting publish)