. . . and happiness in the pages of books

The Joy of Reading
A Collection of Writings
Farida Shaikh
Shade Enterprise

There is indeed joy in reading. Farida Shaikh only reinforces that old notion in us of the sheer excitement which comes of reading, a theme writers across the centuries have consistently dwelt upon. There was, of course, Francis Bacon. Again, there have been books on reading, on the history of reading. Books have been burned through the centuries. Libraries have been vandalized by barbarians in all ages and in all continents. Contrary to our preconceived notions, tyrants and dictators have often turned out to be voracious readers, while people we expected to read have ended up looking sheepish owing to an absence of reading habits in them.
Famously, there was Charles de Gaulle who, when asked what had been the most significant influence on his growth as an individual, swiftly drew attention to the life of a lion. Do not ask, said he, how many lambs a lion has eaten. And then came the punchline: 'I have been reading all my life.'
And now Farida Shaikh gives us reason for reading again, essentially through a collection of the articles as well as translations of short stories she earlier wrote for newspapers and journals or as presentations at discussions. An avid reader and one who has been influential in the emergence of The Reading Circle in Dhaka, Shaikh brings into this compendium, for so it is, images of her thoughts over matters she has considered significant enough to be talked about. Her fascination for books is what is important here, for the good reason that she brings certain old-fashioned and yet lasting values into her assessment of what good, purposeful reading is or ought to be.
Listen to Farida Shaikh as she puts her view across:
'. . . I love shopping for books --- old or new, makes no difference whatsoever. For me, as the saying goes, 'a book is a book is a book'.
And then she brings you in touch with Schopenhauer, whose remark on reading gives us reason to underscore the point she is trying to make: 'To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them.'
And thus it is that she moves on, to give you an insight into the way she has looked at personalities, at the issues that concern us in our times. There are, for instance, her observations on children's literature as organized by BRAC University. There are then such pieces of interest as 'An evening with . . . Aruna Chakravarti' and 'Of Fanaas & Forecastles'. In 'Words n' Pages', she focuses on The Reading Circle and the many illustrious literary personalities it has played host to over the years. You can count among them such individuals as Amitav Ghosh, Purabi Basu, Raana Haider, et al. And then too there are certain pen portraits of other readers, friends she has known in the course of her reading experience --- Razia Quader, Asfa Husain, Shahruk Rahman and Shirin H. Islam. Shaikh clearly makes a brave attempt to demonstrate to readers that there is indeed a good, enlightened group of people in Dhaka who share with one another the liberating passion that comes of reading.
Read on. There is variety that you will get here --- 'A Sector Commander Remembers', 'Double Death . . . 2009 & 2010', 'Netaji's Grand Nephew & Nieces', 'Nondini Literati', 'Mapping South Asia's Female Sexuality', 'Divided Villages and Divisive Faiths' and more.
George Washington valued reading. So did and so have innumerable others. Farida Shaikh reads; and you read with her.

Syed Badrul Ahsan is with The Daily Star