13. Parallel Reads

Reading has been a habit I have not bee able to undo in spite of all the odds. Mom used to reprimand my habit of reading even before I brushed in the morning. 

Now, I have books swarming every nook and cranny of the house. Sorry Mom!

Reading two, three, four books at the same time has been a habit of yore and Mom, don't you think it's so much similar to your habit of surfing the television network and watching three or is it four soaps at the same time?

Anyway, this time around, I took a wee bit more time to complete my books. And it so happened that today morning, I finished reading two apparently different genre of books but having similar leanings. One is Bouncing Forward, by Sam Cawthorn and the other is Youth Vision by Thomas Vattathara and Biju Michael. 

Seeing Sam Cawthorn speaking live and then reading his book was like I was actually hearing him speak. I had a lot of fun attending Sam's talk and he gave us two hours of non-stop frolic. I had more reasons than one to be happy 'cause it's not everyday that we hear people talk of bouncing forward. I have almost always heard of bouncing back to where I was before. But bouncing forward! Now, that was something new and I really liked what I read. Sam went through an excruciatingly painful period trying to recuperate and relearn things which he had always been doing all his life before the debilitating accident. He fell asleep while driving and the misery that it caused to his life has been well chronicled in his book "Bounce Forward." He took a couple of years before he was bouncing forward and playing the guitar with his left hand, when all his life he had done it with his right. And I always thought and still think I have so much to complain about!

The other book Youth Vision was ofcourse a compilation of different papers presented by numerous research scholars, activists on the subject and accomplished young people from the Northeast when they attended a 5-day Consultation on Youth Ministry at the Pastoral Centre, Shillong from 18-22 April, 1995. A good read which enhanced my vision for the youth of the future.