Books - my first love, my second love and maybe, my 'lost' love?

"I will not read another management book because they keep saying the same thing with different examples."

During my Chola days, I was inducted into the inhouse magazine committee.  We had different sections: lead articles, interviews with senior management, review of management books, crosswords, puzzles, quizzes, word jumbles, jokes, celebration of festivals, birthdays and other important life-events.  We took turns to contribute to different sections.  When it was my turn to write a book review, I refused.  In one of our committee meetings, other members confronted me on why I refuse to write a book review and that's when I made the above statement.  I had this attitude that there is no need to keep reading more and more management books as, essentially, they are all saying the same thing over and over again.

It's not that I was totally against reading books.  In fact, I used to be a voracious reader from a very young age.

My first love

It started with magazines like Ambuli mama (Chandamama), Anil mama, Illustrated weekly and, over the years, led me to comics like Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Irumbu Kai Mayavi, Rip Kirby, Archie, Richie Rich, Tintin, Asterix and so on.  When I was in my 3rd standard, my father took me to the Higginbotham's outlet that was located in the Chintamani supermarket complex, Annanagar, and got me my first Amar Chitra Katha comic, Sher Shah.  My love affair with Amar Chitra Katha comics started on that day and continues till date.

My maternal uncle, who introduced me to some really great books, took us to the Madras Book Fair (now Chennai Book Fair) when it started in 1977 and since then, I am been visiting the Book Fair every year till now.  He also enrolled me with Easwari Lending Library which opened a treasure trove of books for me.  My daughter is now a member of the Easwari Lending Library.  They are silently doing a great service to book lovers in Chennai at very affordable cost.

During my middle school days, I was introduced to English fiction for kids like The Hardy boys, Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators and Enid Blyton stories through my friends who were studying in CBSE/Matriculation schools.  During my high school days, I was introduced to novels written by authors like Agatha Christie, Earl Stanley Gardner, Sidney Sheldon, Jeffery Archer and so on.  Agatha Christie novels continue to be my favorite even today.

Around the same time, I read C Rajagopalachari's literary classics, Vyasar Virunthu (renamed later as Mahabharatham) and Chakravarthi Thirumagan (renamed later as Ramayanam) which helped me to understand the intricate nuances of both the epics.

My first non-fictional English book was How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie which I read during my early engineering days.  At that time, I felt that it was a great book and consciously tried to incorporate the 'techniques' prescribed in the book into my daily life.  Two other authors, who influenced me greatly at that time, were M S Udayamurthy and Balakumaran.  M S Udayamurthy's books were primarily about self-improvement, entrepreneurship, well-being of our country and our state.  Balakumaran novels were about the width and depth of human relationships and were unpolished gems.

During my MBA days, while I was going through an ideological confusion, my maternal uncle introduced me to The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.  Both these books had a great impact on me and helped me to realign my ideology. 

Around the same time, I read few management books which talked of principles and practices to be adopted to be successful in life and to be successful in running a great organization.  I found them to be fairly repetitive and that's when I arrived at the conclusion that I had stated at the very beginning of this article.

Then what happened?

My second love

Within a year or so from making that statement, I chose to associate myself with a global training organization.  One of the important requirements of being associated with them was to join a monthly book subscription program and read a book every month.  As I was inspired by the mission of the training organization, I signed-up immediately and read my first non-fiction book after many years and that changed my perception completely.  It was The magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz.  That's when I realized why I need to read such books though they were saying the same thing again and again with different examples.

To quote from Thirukural,

கற்க கசடறக் கற்பவை கற்றபின்

நிற்க அதற்குத் தக.

This may be loosely translated as: Whatever one chooses to learn, learn it thoroughly without any distortion; once you learn it, live according to those learnings.

Even though I 'knew' certain principles and practices intellectually, I did not 'live' them.  By learning them repeatedly with different examples, my learning gets reinforced and there is a distinct possibility that I may internalize and start living them.

From then on, my second love affair with books started.

I didn't confine myself to the books that I got through the subscription program.  I started visiting book stores quite frequently and started buying books.  My favorite bookstore was 'Landmark' which was located in the basement of a complex in Nungambakkam.  Sadly, they have shut shop.  Whenever I was grappling with any challenge, I used to visit Landmark where I always found a book which provided the answer to my challenge.  Some of my favorite authors are Zig Ziglar, Deepak Chopra, Og Mandino, Robert Kiyosaki, Frank Bettger, George Samuel Clason, Eckhart Tolle, Richard Bach and so on.

Then I was introduced to Stephen R. Covey.  

In one of the seminars that I attended, the speaker made us all visualize our death so vividly and made us reflect on what we want our loved ones to say about us at our memorial service.  That exercise left a lasting impression on me.  Then he went on to say that he borrowed this exercise from the book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, written by Stephen R. Covey.

I bought the book and started reading.  I gave up after reading the first two chapters as it was going over my head.  After a year or so, I restarted from the beginning and read the book completely which changed my life.  I was introduced to the concepts of paradigms and principles, vision, mission, first things first, abundance mentality, empathy, synergy and renewal.  I became an ardent student of Stephen R. Covey and studied most of his books.  I was blessed to see him in person and listen to him speak at a conference in Bengaluru during his last visit to India.

Whatever contributions I have made in the last 15 years were greatly influenced by my learnings from Stephen R. Covey.

My 'lost' love?

Along the way, I discovered Jiddu Krishnamurti (JK).

It is very difficult for me to describe in words the impact that JK created on me.  To read and understand what JK is saying, I need to be fully alert.  Many times, I have read and reread the same passage multiple times to understand what he had said.  At times, I have even put the book down and didn't go back to it till I became alert enough.  JK rarely gives answers; he asks questions and leaves the audience to discover the answers themselves.  And the answers, once we discover, are truly lifechanging.  The greater I delve deep into JK's material, the lesser my interest in reading material written by other authors.  

Of course, Stephen R. Covey continues to be an exception.  Whenever I go back with greater clarity and reread Stephen R. Covey's material, I find that what I had discovered was already there.  It was I who didn't recognize it earlier.

In the book, Siddhartha, the author Hermann Hesse talks of a fictional character named Siddhartha whose life loosely resembles the life of Gautama, the Buddha.  In one particular instant, Siddhartha listens to the teachings of Buddha and the next day, he meets Buddha and says, "Oh Buddha!  I know that you truly are an enlightened one.  I also realized that I cannot be enlightened by following you; or for that matter, any other teacher.  I need to discover the truth on my own." (paraphrased by me).

I need to discover the truth on my own.