Choose wisely what you read!

As if what I was doing was not enough to stop time,

Read Here: Would you like to learn how to stop time?

my health ensured that I follow the mantra pretty seriously and so my throat took the reins in its hand and I was down with fever accompanied by body-ache in the past week. It is something weird but I actually enjoy falling sick though I must confess the trouble my kin has to endure especially the father of my kids, does not fall into the 'enjoy' category. Still, falling sick means your body becoming vocal in communicating with you to call it "Enough! I am overworked and would appreciate some attention now." So there I was totally listening to the aches, moaning in response, trying to comprehend what it needs. It was relieving when it finally let go its anger on me as I popped in some antibiotics, painkillers and appeased my low BP with some salt laced apple slices. Yeah, yeah an apple a day keeps the doctor away is still relevant in these times of food blogging, healthy cooking shows, fitness freaks startups!

And like the silver lining to the dark clouds, the best part was I completed some pending reads and started my next. Keeping social media at bay and preferring literary works is refreshing. I can also vouch that even though publishing industry is going through digital revolution, paperbacks are never going to lose their charm. One thing is because the smell of books keeps one at home with nature to which we belong and the other thing is well, paperbacks allow us more focus on the content - there is nothing to get you distracted. You don't have to worry about charging it, or some brand advertisement popping up here or there. Piyush often complain that I never use Kindle but I love to hold books in hand, turn the pages over, fold the corners or slide the bookmarks in, and the feeling of accomplishment I get to see I finished reading a thick bundle of pages! Old school? Yeah, I am guilty of that in certain matters :)

Another thing that I could observe during this paused phase of my days is the uncensored, unedited, opinionated content we are inundated with these days from all sides courtesy social media. What is more appalling is people vying for sensational articles, erotic pictures, alluring videos to gain attention for their dream projects! There is no dearth of such dream projects since today anyone can start a blog, a website, a Youtube channel and on. And unlike before when our reading was limited to newspapers, magazines or books, today content has invaded our lives 24/7 in the form of Whatsapp groups, online marketing, Mobile Apps and of course, community sites. We are so taken along with the rushing tide that we are hardly mindful about the impact of everything on our minds. No wonder our fast paced life is leading to lot of anxieties in our generation and the one to come.

Our mind is getting unhealthy diet as we are letting it feed on whatever is being fed to it everywhere - Click to Tweet

Like when there is some big budget mindless action or senseless drama movie that has no great lessons to offer to the society but that is advertised everywhere in a big way, we get overwhelmed and join the herd to make it even more popular. The same is with books, websites, people. Had the world been populated by only adults and aged people, I wouldn't have mind these entertainers much but I am a mother of two kids whom I am trying to shape as good people and so, to see uncensored, wild content almost everywhere shimmering unabashedly makes my heart squeal with horror.

I can do at least, what I can do. Set a culture for people dear to me and around me. And so, I have somewhere down the line while limiting my online time, also developed a taste for the kind of stuff I like to talk, write, read about and watch. When I finished reading Mitch Albom's another book (book-review coming up) and started another quality book that had been waiting for me for last two years, I felt a sense of satisfaction. I realized reading such material has a lasting effect unlike those forwarded messages or opinionated articles. Believe me,

Reading a good book is meditation - Click to tweet

I also now understand that this is what I enjoy discussing about with my friends and well-wishers. Positive ideas!

You could develop such fine taste only when you have an experience of all kind of genres but also know when to loose interest in the average and bad. I confess one more thing that I do have read popular fiction and cheesy stuff. Hardly few are good and most of them have nothing to add to my understanding about life! ('One night at a call center' was second and last of what I read of Chetan Bhagat). The lousy excuse that they are entertainers and help kill time, doesn't appeal me much. Remember a saying, better alone than in a bad company? Let me rephrase it as, better not to read anything than to read something that has nothing substantial to add to enhance your mind and personality. We have an open market full of opportunities of all kind but we also have our right to choose. So when it comes to reading a content, just remember this:

Read, Think "Will it last with me?" and then Choose what you read next!

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