Reading Hemingway in Dharamshala

I came across the concept of an Academic Holiday when I was skimming through The Difficulty of being Good by Gurcharan Das. In the prelude, he wrote about his plans to take up an academic holiday because he wanted to write on Dharma, for which he had to read about Mahabharata thoroughly. He wrote how this idea of his was received with scepticism by his wife, who suggested to “go to the Turkish coast instead”. His mother had similar qualms, who suggested that he was suffering from Vanaprastha melancholy – whatever that means.

I believe I related to his idea of an academic holiday in a much better way than both his relatives. In fact, he also wrote about his previous holidays when his wife and he went to their Alibaug beach house loaded with nothing but books, and spent days doing nothing but reading. This too seemed exciting, and little more achievable.

I love traveling also. So every time I went for some trips with or without my friends, I carried books, but only to read them while traveling in the train or the flight or the bus or whatever mode of transport I took. The thought about reading WHILE at the destination never occurred to me. On the contrary, when one of my book-worm friends read on our trips, I scoffed at him. I felt that he could read while at his place, and he should spend time with us instead. All he did was listen to us, smile and get back to his book!

Recently I visited Munnar. I took Memoirs of a Geisha with me. Predominantly, my time was spent in reading. I roamed around a little but mostly I was with the book. I loved – not only the book (of course!), but also the way I read it. I saw the hills around, and read. I drank tea, and read. I ate chilly paneer, and read. I wrapped myself in a blanket, and read.

So after I found this topic of Academic Holiday, I was excited. Since the actual implementation was far, I decided to write on this topic. I thought it would be good to do some research before actually putting words on – well – the laptop screen. Typing “Academic holiday” on google gave me about 14,30,00,000 results in about 0.44 seconds. The results contained Academic Calendar of UC Berkley, Columbia University, Cornell University and few more universities, but nothing on what I was searching for. I could then appreciate the scepticism of Gurcharan Das’s wife and mother much better! However, googling “hobbies” gave me numerous relevant links from “What are some of the advantages of having a hobby” to “The Many Advantages of having a Hobby”. The advantages included releasing of stress, possibility of meeting with new people, may be even physical benefits if you happen to like exerting your body, and keeping you more active if you pursue a hobby than if u don’t. Some links talked about converting a passionate hobby into profession (which might mean that the hobby will NOT remain hobby). Couple of links even dared to claim that life is meaningless without a hobby! There was nothing in those links that I didn’t know. So I thought I will write this article based on my past knowledge, present experiences and future hopes.

Looking at the way my plans have fared in last few months, I have stopped planning in advance, however, that doesn’t stop me from fantasizing about what I want to do. So – what I do want to do – is to take an academic holiday! The outcome of that holiday is definitely not going to be as grand as Difficulty of being Good, and maybe that’s not the point also. The point is to have fun, read books and experience the joy of reading! It’s wonderful just to imagine reading a Hemingway in Dharamshala, with Buddhist monks and hills in the backdrop and a coffee in hands!

PS: “52 Weeks, 52 Books” is going on well. After 4 months of reading, I am really happy that I am on track.

PPS: The title is inspired by the name of the book “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi.