How Reading Became A Part Of My Life

Sheel Tankha, Chief Operating Officer, ALSOWISE^®, reminisces:

My school did a special screening of the blockbuster film “Where Eagles Dare” when I was in sixth grade. Like all the other boys, I came away spellbound. Imagine the thrill when I got home and found that my parents had a copy of Alistair Maclean’s novel in their rather extensive library!

Maclean’s books were considered adult reading in those days, so I sneaked it out of the bookshelf and proceeded to read the book on the sly. The first ten pages, or so, were a crashing bore, and described the flight of a plane in excruciating detail. And then the pace of the novel rapidly advanced from somnolent to projectile speed and I, frankly, couldn’t get enough of it! My journey as a reader of adult fiction – I had, hitherto, been restricted to the likes of Blyton, Hitchcock and the syndicate of writers collectively called Franklin W. Dixon that wrote The Hardy Boys series – attained “escape velocity” with that first sneaky act.

Of course, once I had immersed myself in the reading process, my life was never quite the same. The joy of immersion in a book would always commence with cracking it open and smelling the pages, something I enjoy doing to this very day. But reading is so much more than just a habit to pass the time. As I soon discovered to my delight, reading helped improve my usage of the language. I developed a turn of phrase and an inherent skill with plot evolution which came in handy when we had to write short stories as part of English language assignment. Thus, turning in a 400-to-500-word short story was as easy as pie!

Later, when I entered the working world, I found that a large part of the day had to do with going through voluminous documents and proposals. Had I not been a skilled reader, my work would have been very, very tedious indeed. As I climbed the corporate ladder, and with the advent of e-mail, my reading skills helped me to compose succinct communications, putting myself in the shoes of the reader, ever mindful of the need for brevity while ensuring that the tone of my mails could not be misconstrued or cause the recipients offence. This inherent ability to analyse the situation and pre-empt the response of the person reading my communication was one of the fortunate by-products of the reading habit I had imbibed in my youth.

To this day, I spend at least a couple of hours reading, although I must confess that, over the last few years my reading consumption has skewed more towards electronic devices than to physical books. My personal reading preferences not only keep me abreast of developments in the world around me, be it advancements in science and technology, or current affairs, but also help me to organize and structure critical communication to clients and colleagues that forms part of my daily routine.

Ultimately, language skills – critical ingredients of professional success – are often measured by the ability to write correctly, clearly and compellingly. By bringing style, knowledge and creative ideas to bear on what we write, the reading habit prepares us for life.