Feature

Reading for Pleasure
Reading for Knowledge

Professor Abdul Mannan

My ever enthusiastic and philosopher cum poet colleague Kamrul Hassan just returned from Bandung, Indonesia where he lead a four member team from our University to compete in the Asian Universities Debating Championship. Kamrul was not very happy as our team did not make it to the second round in the sixty team competition. We were the only university from the sub-continent. Attenue University of the Philippines took the championship trophy for the third time.

In a competitive situation I always try to know the causes of failure and the secrets of the winners. It was no exception here. Kamrul was of the opinion that our competitors were good in English and presentation but lacked the depth of the subject matter. I could not agree more. Over my more than three decades of experience in teaching and spending some wonderful moments with young people I have the feeling that the reading habit of young learners is in constant decline. Only sufficient reading can enhance ones depth of knowledge. There is no short cut. When my generation was growing up we did more of reading for pleasure which later on turned to the most dependable source of knowledge. Sometime I meet students who come to me to know what is the best way of gathering knowledge out side the text book. I instantly recommend that I cannot prescribe anything else other than reading. It could be any reading material, story books, magazines or news papers. I also tell them that they also have a very good additional source these days, i.e. many interesting educational TV channels like History Channel, National Geographic or Discovery and the like. I tell my student on regular basis one should watch and listen to BBC, CNN or Al-Jazeera. This will widen their horizon of vision; enrich their focus, vocabulary and depth of knowledge. So far the result has not been very encouraging. Young generation these days finds it more rewarding pushing the cell phone buttons or watching the trash Hindi serials. Sometimes I have a feeling that the cell phone culture is killing the creative faculty of our young generation. It has managed to promote the culture of 'talk more work less.'

In my days we neither had the cell phones nor the trash Hindi serials. Our only means of recreation was reading story books and playing out door games. We found quite possible to divide our time between school, games and reading for pleasure and reading for knowledge.

My school had a very rich library of story and reference books. Most of the schools did. In my text book of geography there was the story of the great discoverer Magellan. Our geography teacher one day brought a copy of Encyclopedia Britannica and read out from there about Magellan. That was my first encounter with Britannica. I still relish the time I spent with Britannica in my school library. Every class had a library period each week. This was the time when students would spend time in the library. The 'Nody Boys” and the 'Hardy Boys' series were very popular amongst us. The later one was full of thrills and mysteries. Nody Boys were stories of some mischievous kids. Sure they were harmless.

In 1958 came our new Bengali teacher with handle bar moustache and a khaki jacket. Mr. Armand Roy just retired from the army and took up teaching. He saw action in Burma front during the great war he claims. The first day in class ends with his story of how they were busy fighting more with the menacing mosquitoes of the jungles of Arakan than the advancing Japanese. Next day the General Montgomery looking Armand Roy sir brought a copy of Tagore's Gitanjali in the class and started reciting from there. We were too young to understand anything from Gitanjali. Moreover this was an English medium school. But Mr. Roy made his recitation and explanation of the poem 'Bipode more rokka koro' so simple and interesting that I wanted a copy of Gitanjali of my own. My father got it for me. My father was a remarkable man. Though he never got much of education himself he always wanted his children to get good education. May his soul rest in peace. I still have the copy of the Gitanjali in my possession. The pages have become brittle. It is a treasure for me. Forty years on my love for Tagore always kept on getting stronger.

My city (in those days a town) Chittagong always had some very good public libraries. Talking about libraries you must start with British Council. British Council was British Information Service (BIS) those days. Tucked in a verandah of a two stored building owned by Chittagong Municipality in the southern side of Laldighi, BIS had a very rich Children's Section and had all the major English classics in retold form. We could borrow two books for a month. I would come back within a week as reading was fast. My math teacher once made me do the fag exercise because he found I was concentrating more on Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice' than my math in the class.

Maths somehow never interested me. Sorry Jafar Iqbal. What is a fag exercise? Well you had to stay back after the school hour or come back on the week end (Sunday) and do lots of arithmetic. Big ones. It would be grueling. We did not have any calculators of course.

BIS building also housed the USIS and the Chittagong Municipality Library. Though USIS would have lots of propaganda materials it also had a very good children's section. Who could be a more exciting hero at my age than Mark Twain's, Tom Sawyer and Huckelberry Finn? Years later when I was sitting on a river front restaurant on the banks of Mississippi river on a moon lit a moonlit night in 1989 in Vicksburg, Mississippi the adventure of my childhood heroes started to unfold so vividly. Memories could never be sweeter.

Chittagong Municipality Library had a rich collection of rare books. You had to deposit the price of the book to borrow one. The librarian Das Babu was a very friendly person to students. I always wondered why Das Babu always shaved once a week.

Chittagong Public Library and the Pakistan Council Library were inaugurated in the early sixties. Both were stocked with new books. Though Pakistan Council allowed borrowing its Children's section was not very rich. Membership cost Rs. 5/-. Later it was merged with the public library. Public Library never lent out books. One had to go there and spend time reading books. Excepting the BIS all libraries would subscribe to daily newspapers. Newspapers from Dhaka would normally be available in Chittagong a day later. Chittagong had its own Bangla, English and Urdu newspapers. I would spend two or three hours a week in these libraries browsing through the shelves or reading the newspapers. I still carry the habit of spending times in libraries. Few years back while reading newspapers in lovely spring morning in the reading room of the University of Lancaster, London I chanced to read sign on the wall that said 'Once William Wordsworth Longfellow used this reading room.' What could be more exciting? USIS carried a women's fashion magazine called 'Elle'. At my age it is natural that I tried to take a quick peek in 'Elle'. One day the librarian Mr. Hena gave me a very unfriendly look and my love for Elle terminated.

My dad would give me two anna daily for tiffin. Though not very good in saving somehow I managed to save few annas per week and when my saving reached eight anna (fifty paisa) I would rush to Islamia Library at Anderkilla to buy a new Swapan Kumar series book. Swapan Kumar series, published from Calcutta was a thrilling detective series. Detective Dipak Chaterjee with his assistant Ratanlal (like Dr. Watson of Sherlok Holmes) could solve any crime and mystery, from bank robbery to kidnapping and to murder in Calcutta's China Town. Reading Swapan Kumar series some how I had a feeling China Towns must be full of stripped T-Shirt wearing hard core criminals and gangsters. Later on I found that China Towns any where is the most exciting place that one could go to.

Coming of the Puja was a special occasion for book lovers as many new story books and Puja issues would come from Calcutta. Chittagong's Cooperative Book Society was the major importer. What an outstanding book shop! I believe no one could beat Dev Shahitya Kutir when it came to publication on such special occasions. We had to save more money to buy the Puja issues as these would cost somewhere between two rupees and ten. Eid special issues were non existent in those days. Exchange of story books was very common and the network we managed to establish survived for many years. The youngsters of today are more busy exchanging music and computer game CDs and SMS.

Time has changed.
Short cut to many English classics would be available in 'Classic Comics'. Each would cost one rupees and Chittagong's 'Screen and Culture' book shop (Current Book Centre) and 'News Front' would import comics and readers were plenty. Mr. Mohammed Amin of Screen and Culture would sometimes give me comics on credit as I was his regular customer. These two book shop of Chittagong played a significant role creating young readers. Mr. Amin passed away few years back and Mr. Yousuf Chowdhury of News Front keeps on getting younger. These days he is very much involved in the Dairy Farm Movement. He calls it 'White Revolution.'

The habit of reading I picked up in my child hood never left me. I can claim with all fairness at my age I am still an avowed reader. On a regular day I read at least five to six national dailies and two to three international newspapers. Access to internet has made life easier. I buy books regularly and try to read them. I am still learning and enriching my vocabulary. I still talk in my class of Ptolemy, Socrates and Galellio. Some of my students think these names are in no way related with the subject matter I teach. In one of my semester end evaluation form one of my student wrote at my age I perhaps forgot about my subject and to try to hide my ignorance in Sum Tzu, Chanakya, Confucius and Sarat Chandra. Most think they benefit from my class as it gives them an opportunity to go into a different world for a change.

Education these days have become quite expensive and knowledge seems to have found its place in small compartments, mostly focused only to text books, needed to pass examinations. If teachers and parents do not take efforts to bring these young learners out of the tunnel we would see more Kamruls coming back with a sad face as their teams could not compete successfully in an international competition. The responsibility of improving the situation lies more on us-teachers and parents.

It was the winter of 1997. In a UNESCO organized regional seminar on education held in Vishwa Bharati University (Shanti Niketan), India I was presiding over a plenary session. The eminent economist and one time Vice Chancellor of Vishwa Bharati University; Professor Amlan Datta was the key note speaker. During his deliberation Prof. Datta commented 'if the students have not learnt, the teachers have not taught.' Nothing could be more true.

Professor of Business Administration, East West University. mannan@ewubd.edu June 7, 2007