Better Blog Challenge

Problogger is launching a month long workshop to assist bloggers in building a better blog.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog is aimed at newcomers to the world of blogging, as well as those already familiar. The guy running it is a professional blogger, so I am pretty certain he has got some useful tips to offer.

Even if you haven’t got lots of time to devote to blogging, it’s worth checking out.

• Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. – Mark Twain


• The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. – St. Augustine


• There are no foreign lands. It is the traveller only who is foreign. – Robert Louis Stevenson


• The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are. – Samuel Johnson


• All the pathos of irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveller learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time. – Paul Fussell


• He who does not travel does not know the value of men. – Moorish Proverb


• People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home. – Dagobert D. Runes


• A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. – John Steinbeck


• No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. - Lin Yutang


• Your true traveller finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty-his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure. - Aldous Huxley


• All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it. - Samuel Johnson


• For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” - Robert Louis Stevenson


• Travelling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it. - Cesare Pavese


• One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. - Henry Miller


• A traveller without observation is a bird without wings. - Moslih Eddin Saadi


• When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in. - D. H. Lawrence


• To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world. - Freya Stark


• Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain


• All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. - Martin Buber


• We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. - Jawaharial Nehru


• Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going. - Paul Theroux


• To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted. - Bill Bryson


• Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail - Ralph Waldo Emerson


• Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less travelled by. - Robert Frost


• A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” - Lao Tzu


• There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it. - Charles Dudley Warner


• A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. - Lao Tzu


• If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home. - James Michener


• A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles. - Tim Cahill


• Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey. - Pat Conroy


• Not all those who wander are lost. - J. R. R. Tolkien


• Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen. - Benjamin Disraeli


• Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends. - Maya Angelou


• Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe - Anatole France


• Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. - Seneca


• What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do - especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road. - William Least Heat Moon


• I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within. - Lillian Smith


• To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. - Aldous Huxley


• Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art. - Freya Stark


• The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it. - Rudyard Kipling


• Travel is glamorous only in retrospect. - Paul Theroux


• When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable. - Clifton Fadiman


• A wise traveller never despises his own country. - Carlo Goldoni


• Adventure is a path. Real adventure - self-determined, self-motivated, often risky - forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind - and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white. - Mark Jenkins


• Every perfect traveller always creates the country where he travels. – Nikos Kazantzakis


• Our Nature lies in movement; complete calm is death. – Blaise Pascal


• It is a strange thing to come home. While yet on the journey, you cannot at all realize how strange it will be. – Selma Lagerlöf


• Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination. - Roy M. Goodman


• Clay lies still, but blood’s a roverBreath’s aware that will not keep.Up, lad: when the journey’s over there’ll be time enough to sleep. - A. E. Housman


• As the traveller who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own. – Margaret Mead


• Too often. . .I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen. – Louis L’Amour


• Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey. – Fitzhugh Mullan


• One main factor in the upward trend of animal life has been the power of wandering. – Alfred North Whitehead


• The open road is a beckoning, a strangeness, a place where a man can lose himself. – William Least Heat Moon


• Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone. – The Dhammapada


• Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are. – George Eliot


• Travelling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, ‘I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station. – Lisa St. Aubin de Teran


• Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to. – Alan Keightley


• Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God. – Kurt Vonnegut


• We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. – Hilaire Belloc


• A child on a farm sees a plane fly overhead and dreams of a faraway place. A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse… and thinks of home. - Carl Burns.


• Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you travelled. – Mohammed


• When one realizes that his life is worthless he either commits suicide or travels. – Edward Dahlberg


• Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken. – Frank Herbert


• Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did now know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places. – Italo Calvino


• Travel at its truest is thus an ironic experience, and the best travellers… seem to be those able to hold two or three inconsistent ideas in their minds at the same time, or able to regard themselves as at once serious persons and clowns. – Paul Fussell


• I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world. – Mary Anne Radmacher Hershey


• When you’re traveling, ask the traveler for advice / not someone whose lameness keeps him in one place. – Rumi


• To be on a quest is nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions. – Sam Keen
  The traveller sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see. – G. K. Chesterton


• When you are everywhere, you are nowhereWhen you are somewhere, you are everywhere. – Rumi


• The autumn leaves are falling like rainAlthough my neighbours are all barbariansAnd you, you are a thousand miles awayThere are always two cups at my table. – T’ang dynasty poem


• It is not down in any map; true places never are. – Herman Melville


• People don’t take trips – trips take people. – John Steinbeck


• We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend. – Robert Louis Stevenson


• He who would travel happily must travel light. – Antoine de Saint Exupéry


• Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey. – Fitzhugh Mullan


• One main factor in the upward trend of animal life has been the power of wandering. – Alfred North Whitehead


• The open road is a beckoning, a strangeness, a place where a man can lose himself. – William Least Heat Moon


• Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone. – The Dhammapada


• Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are. – George Eliot

The Upanishads - Songs of Truth

When I bought “The Upanishads” by Eknath Easwaran in one of the newly emerged upmarket bookshops in increasingly posh, urbanite shopping centres of Ahmedabad, I did not know it would be six years before I would actually read that book.

Every time I thought about picking it up, other more “fun” books beckoned me to them. I knew very little about The Upanishads except that they were scriptures of Hinduism and supposedly contained great wisdom. In other words, it sounded like it might be quite a dull reading. It was far more tempting to go for piles of fantasy books waiting for me after a long day at work. For six years, there were always other things to read, other things that got priority.

Then suddenly one day, the time was right. There is an old proverb: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” The Upanishads stopped looking intimidating religious volume when I was ready to ready to receive the wisdom they had to offer. Understanding the essence of The Upanishads is easy enough, but to accept them in one’s life is a whole different ball game.

Easwaran’s translation and his introduction and notes accompanying The Upanishads are real gem. Being an English professor, he uses a language that flows like poetry yet is powerful in its simplicity. In other words, it captures the true essence of Upanishads.

Believed to be dating from around 1500 B.C., Upanishads are more spiritual/philosophical in nature than religious. They are part of Vedas and Hinduism, yet I believe a person from any religious or even non-religion background would be able to relate to them as long as they were able to believe that there must exist something more than what we see.

In Easwaran’s words, “They tell us that there is a Reality underlying life which rituals cannot reach, next to which the things we see and touch in everyday life are shadows. They teach that this Reality is the essence of every created thing, and the same Reality is our real Self, so that each of us is one with the power that created and sustains the universe. And, finally, they testify that this oneness can be realised directly, without the meditation of priests or rituals or any of the structures of organised religion, not after death but in this life, and that this is the purpose for which each of us has been born and the goal towards which evolution moves.”

I do not believe that all of us could be capable of or even should devote our lives to follow all the principles of Upanishads. Everyone cannot devote their lives to meditation, to inward contemplation, and renounce the material world. And we do not have to.

The Upanishads are a guide, a philosophy that even accepted partially in our daily life, could bring us little closer to our inner self. Reaching towards inner self, is reaching towards the soul of the universe. I believe they can teach us as much or as little as we are capable of learning.

As Brihadaranyaka says:
You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.

The Alchemist - My Bible

I bought Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist several years ago. I read it as soon as I bought it, even made notes in it of my impressions. I really liked the book and I agreed wholeheartedly with everything Coelho said. But, at the time the book did not really speak to me. It was a great read – but that’s all it was; just another good book. The Alchemist remained out of sight after that first reading until recently.

Couple of months ago this book started cropping up in conversations I was having with different people, so I decided to re-read it and refresh my memory.

I opened the book, began to read the first chapter, and something special happened that happens with very few books. The words made an impression not only on my mind, but on my heart. This time, the book not only spoke to me, it shouted and screamed, and made sure I listened. It was no longer a simple act of reading a book. It was a medium to listen to the voice of my own soul.

When I read The Alchemist for the first time, my view of world was an idealistic view of a teenager. The book could not speak to me, because I thought I had all the answers. I thought unlike all the other millions of people in the world, I knew how to handle my own life. I did not need a book to tell me, thank you very much.

This second reading was through an eyes of an adult who has had a taste of living in a real world where there are far more questions than answers. I no longer believe that I have all the answers, but what I do have is faith. Faith in my own ability to find the answers as I need them, and faith that “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

While I was reading this book, I felt a sense of reassurance that I wasn’t the only one with so many questions about life, and that I wasn’t crazy to continue to seek my purpose, my destiny. Even though many of us feel that sense of purpose, most of us give up the search because it does not seem to fit in with the “normal” life the society has created. The Alchemist helped me strengthen my belief in the worthiness of my own quest. As the old King says, “To realise one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation.”

Santiago’s quest is not unique. Most of us seek treasure of some kind. Most of us have dreams. The difference is that most of us lack the courage to follow our dreams. We hold on tightly to our safe, normal lives without much risk, but also without adventure. We think of fulfilling our dreams Someday. We forget that there is no Someday in the week. All we have is today. “…Life is the moment we are living right now.”

I keep my copy of The Alchemist – underlined and scribbled into – close at hand, and flip through the pages, finding reassurance from Santiago’s journey, and as I do, I ask God to always give me guidance and courage to follow my own dreams.

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”

The Perfect Shade of Red: An Artist’s Journey

There is an ancient Chinese story about a potter who spent his life searching for the perfect shade of red. He filled all his days learning new technologies and experimenting with new techniques to perfect the crimson glaze his heart desired.
Nothing worked.

He travelled throughout the country and consulted with other potters. None of them could help him.

Finally, he came home and sat by his kiln. Frustrated by his failed endeavour he threw himself in the kiln.

His assistant came looking for him. He called for the potter again and again, but could not find him.

When the kiln cooled down, the assistant pulled out the pots that had been fired. They were the perfect shade of red.

The potter, himself, was the very thing he had been searching for all his life.

Voltaire's Candide

In my 2008 calendar diary there is a quote on each page. On one page was a famous deathbed declaration from Voltaire in response to a priest asking that he renounce Satan - Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies.

It made me laugh out loud. I had heard about Voltaire of course, but I had never read anything of him. After reading this quote, and after speaking to one of my French friend, I decided to give him a go and bought “Candide.” When I first started reading it, I was quite not at ease with the writing style. That wasn’t enough to dislike the book, so I waited until I got further involved in the plot. Once I did get involved, writing style did not bother me. Perhaps because by that time it no longer felt odd. From the very beginning the first thing I noticed and liked was Voltaire’s cynicism. He does it with such a style that if he was doing it in real life, I believe a person being insulted would not have realised it was an insult for at least few minutes.

Through eyes of naive Candide, Voltaire exposes the flaws of fellow humans. Despite his many experiences, Candide refuses to see the truth of his fellow humans and instead chooses to stick to philosophy taught by Pangloss. It is only at the very end - after, he ends up marrying now ugly Cunegonde - that Candide comes to realise that perhaps world is not the place Pangloss insisted it was. Pangloss himself has come to realise that, but he carries on pretending to maintain his belief rather than admit he was wrong.

Despite his naivety and despite believing himself to be a good man, Candide has not managed to escape Voltaire’s irony. He believes especially in the theories of his master Pangloss when it suits him - like killing his sweetheart’s brother (several times if necessary), or worshipping his sweetheart’s beauty, valuing people for their misfortunes, and refusing consistently to see the truth of his fellow men that proves Pangloss’ philosophy to be a complete nonsense.

It was a great read, and I look forward to reading more things from Voltaire.

How Many Cultures Could Have Been Saved Across the World if Natives Knew About Immigration?

The Language Show

On 1st of November, I went to the Language Show at Kensington Olympia, London. This is an annual event but it was the first time I found out about this and being now a fully committed language learner I went to check it out.

To use a cliché, it was like being a kid in a candy store. Hundreds of stands, all related to languages, book shops, free taster courses, intensive class sessions, free seminars - and with all these, hundreds of people who are also connected to the area of learning languages.

Just as soon as I walked inside the building, I got my free tickets for Arabic and Turkish taster courses from the reception desk. Arabic was scheduled to start at 12:00, so until then, I explored the many delights of various stands, learning about different methods used for language learning.

My one big disappointment was that majority of stands only had books for display. It made practical sense that they didn’t have to carry a lot of stock, but I had been really looking forward to buying several books - especially foreign language fiction. That was one of the main reason I had been looking forward to visiting the stand of Great Britain Association of Esperanto. I saw Lord of the Rings trilogy on the shelf and I was ready to buy it, until the lady informed me they were not for sale.

Another thing that excited me was visiting Greek and Latin for all. Now, eventually I would like to learn a great number of languages, and I have not made any final decision as to what I would like to learn and what I wouldn’t. Currently, Latin and Ancient Greek weren’t on top of my list. But then I visited this stand, saw the available material, and thought Latin…hmm…why the hell not! So again I was quite ready to buy the Cambridge Latin Book 1, until I was told it’s not for sale. But at least the guy gave me a free cloth bag to carry all my various leaflets and booklets (shame that the bag had ripped by the time I got home at the end of the day).

Even though I was unable to buy the Latin book, the idea of it stuck in my mind. So yesterday, I ordered the Cambridge Latin book online along with Harry Potter 1 in Latin. So I guess, I will be adding Latin to the other three languages I am currently learning.

Arabic taster course was great. The man teaching it was a native Syrian and he had a pretty engaging way. Turkish taster course on the other hand was a complete disaster, due to the really irritating woman from Cactus Languages, trying to do the taster course for 30 minutes in “Turkish Only” way with really bad acting and TOO MUCH prancing about to convey her meaning. Now, I think “Target Language Only” are great idea - but not for a taster session. That’s the kind of stuff that should be reserved for at least a day’s immersion course. Fortunately, she did not put me off from Turkish - however, it is a final stamp against Cactus.
I have heard a great deal of horrid things about them, and know some people who have found their language classes to be a complete waste of time. With this experience, I refuse to have anything to do with them ever again.

I also attended a seminar titled “Subliminal Language Learning” held by a woman named Caroline Smart. Another DISASTER. First of all, she spoke so slowly that it reminded me of how New Yorker’s feel about Texan speech. You feel like you have to wait couple of hours before someone would bother to finish their sentence. Caroline apparently is also a yoga teacher who found mixing relaxing and meditating techniques of Yoga blended well with language learning. I do believe that in the hands of a person capable of delivering a decent seminar, this could have been an interesting session. But in this particular incident, I cursed myself for not sitting at the end. However, I was fortunate that people sitting behind me also found it boring enough to get up and leave, which gave me enough space to escape without wasting more time than I already had.

Despite some of these disappointments though, the Language Show was a great experience and for crazy language/book maniac like me, a great day out. I look forward to attending this event a yearly tradition.

Lives Lost

O poor mortals, how ye make this earth bitter for each other. - Thomas Carlyle


On 26th July 2008 there were terrorist bombings in the city of Ahmedabad in western India. Let’s face it…these days terrorist attacks have become as common news as weather reports. They may be common, but they are still horrifying. Amongst the hundreds of pictures I have seen over the years, this one struck me more than usual for some reason. It was printed in one of the national papers; I am not sure which one now. But I saved it.

The fruit sellers - perhaps husband and wife or perhaps competitors selling different things. Poor people, earning their keep by working their trade on the streets. It is not a glamorous job, nor a particularly comfortable one. But it would have provided for their families…often barely. They would have started their working day, as per usual, hoping for a good business day. Then suddenly, they are a still image, soaked in blood, captured for eternity, making them famous to people who otherwise would not have spared them a second glance.

Isn’t it ironic those poor, wretched lives taken so unjustly, and their wares - bananas, apples, and oranges remain perfectly, neatly arranged on the two carts - both in a neat row? But that destruction of things is not necessarily - two bodies on the road speak loudly enough of the state humanity has been reduced to.

Ben Franklin - Hardly a Saint!

When we think about Benjamin Franklin, we think about the historical hero who was at forefront in the development of American Constitution or a Scientist whose experiments led to great discoveries, or even a Statesman who worked for the people. But he was also a writer. A printer, as he liked to be known. He wrote plenty of sincere things, but there were also other essays and articles which shows a little different side of Benjamin Franklin.

“Advice To A Friend On Choosing A Mistress” from 1745 is one such interesting piece of writing. It is unclear whether this was seriously written or humorously, but regardless it is a side of Franklin that surprised me when I first read it.

It is a letter addressed to “My dear Friend,” advising him that the best state for a man to be is married; though if he must have a mistress then he ought to have an older woman as opposed to a younger one. After this declaration, Franklin lists several reasons justifying his recommendation to his friend. The most provocative ones were Number 5, and Number 8.
Number 5.“Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement.”

Number 8.“[thly and lastly] They are so grateful!”
“They” in Number 8, being the old women - who must find some gratification in being mistresses to the younger men. Though there is no agreement amongst the scholars as to the seriousness of this letter, I am inclined to think that this does reflect on Franklin’s personal views. Through his biography, along with his high moral character, his hardworking methods and his principles, what is also evident is that Franklin was ambitious. He had always aspired to monetary comforts and believed that he would get through hard labour. He was also proud of his own achievements, and there is a little coldness to his character. It is by no means diminishes his achievements or him. In fact, I think it makes it even more evident that Franklin was very much a “human” hero. Many heroes like Gandhi for example, are almost saintly that we feel as if we should revere them. Aspiring to be like them seems unreachable.

But Franklin, through his very ordinary humanity, seems like a perfect role model for would-be heroes.

Benjamin Franklin's Thirteen Virtues

At about 22 years of age, Benjamin Franklin contrived an idea to achieve moral perfection, and came up with a list of thirteen virtues that he strove to incorporate in his character.

It is just another example of industrious hard work that makes Ben Franklin such an important figure in history. He was not a "genius" by standard definition. His own quick wit and his resolve to succeed in the world.

Here is a list of his virtues:

1. Temperance
   Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation
2. Silence
   Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order
   Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution
   Resolve to perform what you out. Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality
   Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e. waste nothing.
6. Industry
   Lose not time. Be always employed in something useful; cut of all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity
   Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice
   Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation
   Avoid extremes. Forbear resenting injuries so much as you think you deserve.
10. Cleanliness
    Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes or habitation.
11. Tranquility
    Be not disturbed at trifles or accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity
    Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
13. Humility
    Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

A Blessed Curse!

When I was about 9, I was forced to bed rest for four months straight. First I had an accident where I fractured my leg and injured my arm. I had barely recovered from that when I had typhoid fever for two months. Hellish as those four months were, they gave me a gift which I shall be grateful for throughout the rest of my life. It gave me passion for reading.

I always liked reading, but in those four months when all other usual activities were taken away from me, books were my solace. A librarian neighbour used to bring some books home, and other family friends also brought books as get-well present. Since then, I have LOVED books. I can live without great many things if I must…I can even give up computer and Internet if I MUST…but life without books would be but an empty shell.

Books are my precious possessions. I never give them away. I only lend them to people I am sure would look after them. Even my cheapest of book picked up from a budget store gets the same royal treatment. There is even a strange sort of pleasure in just looking around the room and looking at piles of books all around me. The bookshelf weighed down by the sheer amount of books crammed on the shelves.

I have been to thousands of book shops in several countries - huge modern bookshops, antique bookshops, second-hand bookshops, charity bookshops - and I have been to many many libraries, just walking amongst the isles of books, revelling in the smell and the sight of them. Yet amongst all these places, there is one that stands out.

One of the oldest libraries in the world - Bodleian Library at Oxford is the best place I have ever been for the books. Just stepping inside Duke Humphrey’s library, looking at the old wood shelves and a balcony laden with books, I felt sheer joy. It was really disappointing that visitors are not allowed to stay there (for good reason), or that I could not spend much time there. I can imagine sitting in that old library, day after day, poring through those amazing ancient volumes. Merely to touch those priceless books would be an experience.

Language Learning...Why Bother?

Learn a new language and get a new soul. ~Czech Proverb

This is a question often asked by many native speakers of English. Even people from nations whose native language is not English, consider English to be the ultimate salvation. Granted, English is an International language, and if you know it, you can sail through life without a great deal of difficulty. It is also beautiful language, with a rich store of literary treasure. But it is only ONE of many such languages.

To understand a foreign language is great. To be able to read, write and speak that language is nothing short of a delight. Often in public places when I happen to be near a group of people talking loudly in a foreign language I cannot understand, I find it quite irritating because it just feels like a lot of noise. However if it is a language that I do understand then suddenly that loud noise becomes intriguing conversation. It could be amusing, disgusting or just dull…but because I understand it, I can judge it for myself and block it out.

All of that is well and good, but I want to learn languages - as many as I possibly can - for the world of opportunities it could open up. What a wonder it would be to pick up a book in Italian, German, Hindi, Arabic, Hebrew or any one of the hundreds of languages and read it in it’s original language! Only the famous books gets translated into English. But there must be millions of other worthy books that never gets translated - all that knowledge, mysteries and stories waiting to be discovered…the key to it all is new languages.

Better get cracking then…