Subhechcha Ganguly 
Nowadays the younger generation is glued to their cell phones. With the social media addiction increasing day by day, the Reading Habit of the Youth has definitely seen a down surge. Let us throw light on this issue with Author Ravi Valluri who has authored several eminent books. He is a person who beholds a strong opinion and can surely enlighten the youth on this issue.
Q1) As a reader, how much did you spend reading books, as a child?
Ans: Of the cuff I cannot recall the time spent reading books. Back then as we went through the rote, it was compulsory to read text books (wonder how much we assimilated).
As youngsters we used to play several outdoor and indoor games. But in the alcoves of my mind, I do remember reading Enid Blyton, Hardy Boys, C. Rajagopalachari’s Ramayana and Mahabharata, The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Gandhiji and books by Charles Dickens.
Additionally, as students used to go through comics like TinTin, Asterix, Panchatantra and Amar Chitra Katha. A robust school library system was in place and there used to be a library period where youngsters pored over encyclopaedia among other texts.
Q2) Do you think social media is harmful?
Ans: Social media has become an integral part of our lives and humans cannot ignore it. Pew research conducted among children and teens in the US found that nearly 45% of them were on line for several hours and around 80-90% logged on to Facebook, You Tube and Snap Chat. Apparently in India 9 to 13 years old spend almost 3 to 4 hours on social media.
Now there is a wealth of information available on social media and it is the discretion of the viewer to separate chaff from the grain. The negative aspects include watching unsavoury things. Further addiction to social media has an adverse impact on our posture, eyes, hands, fingers, neck besides leading to disturbed sleeping time and constant bombardment of information both good and bad. The mind gets little time to rest, thus there is a quantum jump in people adding physical exercise, yoga, pranayama, breathing techniques and meditation to their lives as a part of holistic healing.
Parents and teachers need to educate children and youth to reduce the time to be spent on the gizmos. This is imperative. Even adults necessarily have to discipline the mind by imposing a “no use of electronics” day/days to detox the body and mind.
Q3) Reading Habits have decreased amongst the youth. For this reason, the imagination capacity is also decreasing. How do you think kids can be inspired on reading books?
Ans: Children, students and the youth are extremely imaginative these days and fox their teachers by asking “out of box” questions. I do not agree at all that they are not imaginative and on the contrary, I would say that they are exceedingly inquisitive.
Recently my fellow panellist during the Kolkata Book Fair, an English school teacher candidly confessed that the students could not be tutored as to what is to be read or not and her students were fully conversant with the latest happenings in the world and amazed and astonished teachers with the quality of questions they posed.
Children are aware as to what they wish to read and what not to read. Let us look at the number of books published in India. In the year 2013 our rank was 10th world over and this jumped to 8th in 2022. The other day I came across a 15-year-old girl who has published her first book of poetry on the Kindle. Now there is a clamour among young and old to read, write and post their works on social media as it provides for instant recognition and gratification, however short-lived it may be. What you can say is that individuals are perhaps lacking in the necessary patience to do the “tapasya” or hone skills before showcasing their talent.
So, children are inspired to read – but we cannot force them to read a particular genre. The buyer’s market would determine the seller’s market in a big way now.
Q4) Do you think e-books are a saviour as people at least read. Also do you think digitalization has a scope to increase reading habits?
Ans: The Novel Corona virus has impacted our lives in many ways and readers would be surprised to know that E-Books and Audio books sales have gone up by 50% in India since 2021. In fact one of my books, “365 Spiritual Quotes of H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar” was converted into an audio book.
Digitisation is the order of the day as we are subsumed by the increasing span of technology and all segments of people will have to accept it as fait accompli and live and grow with these developments.
I am launching a website called rustleofwords.com where budding writers and published authors can contribute articles, stories, drabbles, poetry. They can mail their entries to rustleofwords@gmail.com
