FURIOUS waves kept thudding into his thighs. He remained stoic and firm in his bid to build strength and power in his body. A daring escape from the penal colony of French Guiana ruled Henri Charrière’s mind. He devised ways, plotted routes and finally set out on the massive ocean towards freedom... Each word from the best-seller “Papillon”, the all-time famous autobiography by Charrière, hold the power to transport the reader to the clamorous sea around the prison on the isolated island. The dingy cells of the jail, soul-breaking solitary confinement, fresh waft of air from the high window, and finally the splash of salty water on the makeshift raft built by ‘Papillon’, one can still feel those on the skin as one immerses oneself in the classic for the umpteenth time. This is the power of the written word, the magic of books, the divine pleasure of reading. Reading is an intimate journey into a world constructed solely by the wizardry of words.

 

A flight of imagination takes off on the first sight of the written word and the mind starts making a picture of the writer’s thought. The experience is exhilarating -- unmatched and unrivalled. There is a vicarious thrill in identifying with the characters in a plot and sharing a ride with them in a different place and time. It is a healthy mental exercise that holds the ability of bringing in a new perspective as one steps into a different shoe. Words do posses the power of healing and harming, giving solace and misleading, handing truth and also providing a narrative of lies. They operate in different genres, various milieu but stand straight on the dint of their inherent strength. This strength is contagious and thus emerges as the biggest benefit of reading. Dig into the accounts of people who were riddled with claustrophobia during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown and you will realise how reading books made them forget the gloom around.

 

Talk to the people afflicted by life-threatening diseases and you will keep wondering about the courage they derive from the printed word. It is reading, quality reading, that sets the mind free from miseries. Sadly, the happy engagement with books is rapidly dwindling. New humanities indicators are showing a poor proficiency for reading in the younger generation. A wave of attitudinal change is sweeping across the society, powered mainly by the digital cousin of the printed word. Yet, there is hope in the form of steadily sprouting book clubs. The bond with books is alive. Hope still floats. The intimate world of words beckons, even in the ‘Cellular’ jail!