“After a long time!” Lulu, my parrot chirruped. “After a long time!!”

I looked around and found Lulu had entered through the window and settled on the heap of books near my book rack.

“What do you mean ‘After a long time’?” I put the book in my hand down on the table.

“Arre! I meant I saw a book in your hand after a long time. Why did you put it down?”

“You know what – I have been feeling that I am spending good time writing blogs, but not reading. So resumed reading.”

“That’s a good move. Writing without reading is like running a car without caring to fill up the petrol tank.”

“You said it. There are books which I like, some of them, in the non-fiction category, like those on philosophy, are difficult to understand at the first go. I read them, keep them down, and something draws me to them again.”

“Reading fiction has its own value. But you must read those philosophy books. Even if you do not understand.”

“But I lose my interest soon.”

“Have you ever imagined how a baby makes effort to understand what you communicate? The baby does not understand your language; it starts making sense by repeatedly listening, associating and somehow developing an understanding.”

“That’s tough. Reading without fully grasping destroys interest of adults. One must retain the curiosity of a child.”

“And you can refer to a dictionary; the baby can’t.”

“Muslims do ‘Chilla.’ They recite the Holy Quran for forty days. They say they gain greater understanding with the practice of Chilla.”

“Interesting. Hindus perform ‘parayan’ – similarly reading a religious text repeatedly to gain deeper understanding.”

“There is a story of a person who read Bhavarth Deepika, a treatise on Bhagwadgita, popularly known as Dnyaneshwari written by Sant Dnyaneshwar, one hundred and eight times. He then gained such insights that his erudition was listened by thousands.”

“Interesting….”

“Looking back, we gained deeper understanding of the lessons in our management books much better when we read them again after a few years at the job.”

“That’s because you related the message to your experience. Why can’t you pause and test the message of the book against your experience?”

“I guess reflection is the way to go after reading.”

“You said it. Reading and reflection are like eating and digestion.”

“I have always wondered how the CBI sleuths understand the Account Books of Vijay Mallya, Rana Kapoor, Kapil Wadhwan and many of their clan. They give loans, receive kickbacks, buy properties, rent them out, stash money in banks abroad! All through a complex web of transactions.”

“The method for gaining understanding and insight is same. The CBI sleuths read those account books repeatedly; and then they read all the account books of this clan together!”

“Ha ha ha!!”

“They realise that there is a great difference between accounting and accumulating!” Lulu pointed out the news report in the newspaper and gave me a knowing glance.

Vivek S Patwardhan

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”