Book-reading…Got my touch back!

I’ve grown up watching my dad reading some or the other book during his free time. Observing what we’ve grown up is what we tend to be, is once again proved right as far as I’m concerned.

Dad used to suggest me to read books. During my childhood I used to follow him very seriously, only on Sundays though. Being only child to my parents I didn’t have anyone to play with at home, especially in the afternoons. This was the time I used to spend for reading. I used to choose books which had many colorful pictures. I remember reading a book on the universe and satellites, which was a hard-bound one with exciting images of the astronauts, solar system, galaxies etc. In spite of reading it hundreds of times I never imagined myself traveling in space! I’m still unaware why so!

During B.Tech…

My interest towards reading books has grown up along with me. Due to the academic workouts I couldn’t continue it quite well. I was infected with chicken-pox in my B.Tech first year. I had to miss some sports competitions at college hostel which I knew I would win. I was upset. Then my mom gifted me an inspirational (in Telugu). It was almost after four years I read a nonacademic book. And then started my journey back to reading books!

I used to read self-help books a lot; probably, they are the reason behind the philosophical/inspirational touch in my posts here. My dad used to gift me books. I loved the way he chose books for me as per my necessity. He gave me a book “Dictionary of Technical Terms” during my engineering.

Mom, dad and I used to visit the International Book Fair at Vijayawada (a city in Andhra Pradesh, India). We used to carry home bags of books, some for the school libraries and some for our library at home. In the final year of my B.Tech I started reading books on group discussions, body language for interviews etc. Those tips have really helped me in clearing most of the interviews I’ve attended so far.

I love reading Sydney Sheldon novels. After seeing the way the female characters were shown enforced in the novels I thought the author was a lady! Oops, but he was a man.

During M.Tech…

M.Tech at IIT gives you no time for extra-curricular activities other than downloading and watching movies!

I lost my reading-touch for almost a year. Finally, on one fine day, I had been to the famous Pragathi Maidan, to visit an international book fair. I got confused what to buy and what not to after seeing the whole brand new books in the market. Stipend was no good in inspiring to buy many books. Somehow I managed and selected few. TV room at IIT was my favorite place to read. With my craziness towards cricket I used to wake up early in the morning to watch the matches (series with Australia etc), and used to have book in one hand and the remote in other. You don’t have much competition for remote other than for the serials in the night.

“Emotional Intelligence” was the first ever book I remember stopping in the middle as I could not continue it further. It was far beyond my understanding of human brain! I will some day catch it up again. “Chetan Bhagat” was the first India novelist I read. My poor interest in reading Indian authors was the culprit. “Five point someone” was the novel that incepted a thought in me “Why don’t I write a book myself?”!! This though was the reason why this “Being Pramoda…” blog started. No, that was the inspiration. Since then I love writing too.

By the way, “Three Mistakes of My Life” was the second and the last one so far which I could not continue reading, definitely not for the same good reason I mentioned above! Hope you understand!

After college…

As I’ve started my professional life, I’ve got a whole new perspective towards book-reading. I will let you know about it in the next and the final part of this post. I will let you know on how I’ve become versatile in choosing books and how I started taking help of books in planning my career and personality. I think this post is already enough long! And the main reason is I’m rushing to watch a movie (The Dirty Picture).