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STORY TIME: The three boys and their books
The examination time was just round the corner. All the students were busy preparing for the examination. However, all of them had adopted different methods of doing so. Every pupil had a book in his hand. But the books were not the same. Nor the rooms where the students were studying, the same.
The first book
The room is air-conditioned with a large and luxurious bed in the centre. Books, notebooks, pads, pencils, expensive pens, magazines and gramophone records are lying on the table. The glow of the table-lamp is providing ample light on the book.
In this room a boy is sitting on an easy chair reading a book. On the table next to him is a cup of coffee and a plate full of sandwiches. He eats a morsel of sandwich and sips coffee and then looks at the clock on the wall.
The room is quiet, except for the soft murmur of the air-conditioner. He is reading in a relaxed environment. His loving parents have instructed the servants to pass by the room quietly so that their son is not disturbed.
But it is said that relaxation depends on the state of mind. This boy has his books in front of him, but he is not concentrating on either of the subjects. He is more interested in the English music playing on his gramophone. His mind drifts inside a nightclub where a woman is entertaining the guests with her dance. His mind is transported to the racecourse where his favourite horse is winning. As the music reaches higher notes the boy’s fingers drum the cover of the book. How lilting is this music, the boy muses. The textbooks are all so dull and drab as compared to this, he muses.
At midnight when the father tip-toes into the room he is delighted to find that his darling son is still studying and preparing for the examination. But when he comes closer he finds that while the boy’s eyes are on the book, the book itself is lying upside down. It is an Economics book and is called, THE VALUE OF MONEY.
Second book
The second book is also in the hands of a boy. The boy is reading the book with great concentration. But due to the din and noise inside the room reading is difficult, if not impossible.
The old fan inside the room is making more noise than providing relief from heat. One never know when the fan may come crashing down on someone’s head. In a corner of the room the mother is cooking food on a stove, which is making a loud whistling sound, ‘shoo, shoo.’ On the other side the father has taken off his shirt and is lying on a wicker mat, snoring loudly. Two younger brothers are busy in a wrestling bout right in the centre of the room. The younger sister is memorizing tables loudly, “Eight fives are forty, eight six are forty-eight...”
Clothes have been put up for drying under the old fan while the youngest one is playing with her dolls and addressing them loudly. A radio is playing loudly in the adjacent flat.
Even then the boy is adamant to study. Soon all the noise from the fan and the stove, chattering of the children, snoring of the father are lost in the text of the book. It is a book of Psychology, WILL POWER OF HUMANS
Third book
It is a full-moon night. Among the numerous buildings of Bombay is the Central Library, once the Town Hall of the city visited by the Governors, Khan Bahadurs and Rai Bahadurs with full pomp and pageantry, to convey their loyalty to the British Raj. Also present sometimes would be rebellious young men who would taunt these people in their slogans and speeches.
Here are now stocked thousands of books on all possible subjects where the young and old come from morning till late in the evening to read. But at this hour even the library is closed. Since the library is at a height, one has to climb dozens of steps to reach the main hall. There is a crowd of young men at the library. What are they doing here at this time of night? Are they assembled here to lodge some protest? No. Are they eve teasing? No. Are they outside a cinema hall to buy tickets? No. Are they jeering the vice-chancellor or a college principal? No, no. They are all reading. In the lights outside the Central Library, from the street lamps. No one is talking or even whispering to one another. No one has a sandwich in his hand, nor a cup of coffee.
Of course, the old Chai Walla is seated there as usual and once in a while a youth comes up to him to buy a cup of cheap tea.
The older ones are studying, the youngsters are studying. They are studying Geography and History, Economics and Political Science, Physics and Chemistry. They are studying for the Matric as well as the B.A. examination. In economics they are studying how business is managed and money multiplied. They are also reading about the rights and privileges of labour as laid down in the constitution.
They are all children of the poor who have no electricity in their homes or it has been disconnected for non-payment of bills. Some are suffering from power breakdowns and load-shedding in their small hovels.
The boys are all busy studying. A boy has in his hands a book on political science, THE REVOLUTION.
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