THIS COULD SURPRISE YOU....

A DILEMMA.... [Up to you to decide if it is small or big]

Have I done wrong in choosing to live, mostly, in the company of books, rather than of human beings?

My readers may be familiar with a proverb of Latin origin: Either books or children. Meaning, you can't have both.

Is this really true? What do you think?

The impression about me in my neighborhood is quite negative, if I may say so. (This may not surprise many.) My neighbours feel that I am a spectral creature from whom it is wise to keep a safe distance.

The main reason for this is that they see light in my study at unearthly hours.

Have I become a-social because of books?

The truth about me is that I crave human company.

Precisely for that reason, I am greatly concerned about what sort of a person I am.

Would it be worthwhile for someone to spend a few minutes with me?

What do I have to offer to anyone?

Am I a positive presence?

Because of this concern, I try to improve myself day after day. Sadly, the only way available to me as of now is to read, read and read. (Also, to write now and then, as in the present case.)

I think of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. What manner of a man was he! Encountering him transformed the woman.

Can I do any good to anyone, if I am not at least a pale, distant reflection of the Galilean?

Here let me refer to a relevant experience of mine.

I used to return home every day, during the while that I was the principal of St. Stephen's College, Delhi, utterly zapped. No exaggeration: I used to come home and collapse.

Why?

Because I had to interact with a large number of people every day. Much of my daytime was consumed by this.

It is not the number of people you meet that causes you to collapse in a heap of tiredness. It is the quality, or want of it.

Most people today are such, I am sorry to have to say, that spending even a few minutes with them could drain you out.

My readers could think that I am trying to show my erstwhile colleagues in a bad light. God knows I am stating the truth. It may well be that I too was equally inadequate.

All the same, I was acutely aware of one thing: my foremost spiritual and human duty is to be a positive and life-kindling spirit.

Perhaps that was what Jesus meant when he said you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Looking back I realize that I was also treating my library -of late my collection of digital books- as a haven of escapism. Or, to take a more charitable view of it, I was resorting to it as a means of social compensation.

What I now realize is that, while this is rewarding and meaningful up to a point, it is not an adequate solution.

There is no substitute for human company. One cannot be fruitful without one's fellow human beings.

Oh, the sheer bliss of meaningful companionship, fellowship, and oneness in the spirit!

I wish my readers the joy of it.

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