Books give wisdom and strength to face challenges, says Governor

Inaugurating the Neyveli Book Fair-2018, organised by the public-sector company Neyveli Lignite Corporation India Limited (NLC) under its Corporate Social Responsibility initiative, he said, “take Gandhiji for example. His life was profoundly changed after he read John Ruskin’s ‘Unto This Last’ on a train ride from Johannesburg to Durban in South Africa on October 1, 1904.”

“Influenced by the book, he established the Phoenix Settlement where he and his co-workers practiced the ideals put forth by ‘Unto this last’,” the Governor said.

Purohit said a book fair was a celebration of books. “It is a celebration of the reading habit, it is a celebration of authors and thinkers; it is a celebration of knowledge itself.”

Quoting former President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, he said “books are the means by which we build bridges between cultures”.

“When children develop love of reading at an early age, their language skills grow, their imagination is enriched, their world becomes a world of wonder and they later easily adapt to the reading-focussed learning environment of their classrooms,” the Governor said.

“For books are friends that open themselves to us at our will and convenience sharing all that they have. What would many of us be without the values and sense of adventure that books bequeathed us. Books give us the wisdom and strength to face the challenges of life,” he added.

Purohit said at a book fair, there was a joy of finding all the books from the publishing industry right at our doorstep.

There was possibility of meeting a favourite author at the fair and getting one’s books autographed by him. “That would forge a direct connection with the source and inspiration of one’s ideas,” he said.

There is the occasion of finding a book-lover friend at the fair and making a foray into the world of books with him or her.

“At the root of all great books, are exemplary human qualities like hard work, selflessness, social concern, truth, sincerity and the like”, the Governor said.