Books! Ahhhh! The smell of crinkly paper! There is real intrigue of a new book as if it holds magical secrets and worlds. The media where your mind is still driving but the words are merely guiding you and describing. Your own imagination and personality interprets the words and form a world for you which is entirely your own. It feels as if the story has been customised to make sense only to you. It is not created by special effects and grand sounds, idiot proofing the expected response from a scene. No sir! You are the director in a book albeit an inexperienced one so the author nudges you a bit from time to time. A book is like a blank picture in which you fill the colours. I am not suggesting that a movie does not do this but a book is more subtle. Its at your own pace and your imagination is in control. You do not see an interpretation of someone else however good it may be. You can take it with you everywhere. Its with you before you go to bed or when you are on the bus. Reading is one of the last remaining bastions of mental privacy. Video games are taking over, but books are the much cleverer low tech response and that’s what we should admire. There is some really clever when a bunch of words can make you weep or smile while a whole load of technology doesn’t always deliver. Is it harder to read a book than watch a film? You are damn right it is! But that is what makes them special. You have invested your heart, your soul, your time, and your effort into it. You have connected and identified with this wood pulp packaged as a rectangular block. Its part of your personality like no other film or video game is. This is a real match up, Technology vs. pure human ability. Man vs. machine, the ultimate challenge, Terminator vs. Indiana Jones. You know who I am rooting for!! The machines shall never take over!! Remember, all movies were written stories or books before they went on the idiot box. So why not read the premiere of your own version of the film. All it takes is curiosity, patience, and imagination. Guess what! It also makes you cleverer. Anyone can watch, but those who read will write the future!!
Vandana Puri
Principal