The pandemic has left many college students with limited access to outdoor activities. They have been locked up inside their homes looking for things to do. With ample time available, many have started to discover new interests while some have rekindled old ones.
A person reading a book
The boredom of online classes and webinars is being neutralized by students with books. The pandemic has brought a lot of readers back to books and reading more religiously.
Aditi, an Architecture graduate says that she did not realize when college had taken away her reading time. “I used to carry a book everywhere I went but somehow never ended up finishing it or even finishing it halfway”. She says that she is really happy that she has started reading again and recommends Khaled Hussaini’s ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. “I read ‘To Kill A Mockingbird, ‘The Prophet’, and also a book by an Indian author. Getting back to reading, even if my pace is slower than what it was before makes me take my mind off reality for a while, and honestly, that’s all you’d want right now”, she says.
Currently, in her sophomore year, Pavas had started to drift away from reading because of her mental health. She says that she would hate having to go through the academic texts because tffhat was forced upon students. “Education makes it difficult to appreciate text,” says Pavas. Since the pandemic has started she has started to read a lot on Philosophy, articles, and short stories. Drishti Joshi, a journalism student says that since the start of the lockdown a lot of her friends gave her books to read. With plenty of time on hand, she ended up reading five books in a month and loved the feeling.
Srimoyee Biswas says she noticed a big shift in her type of reading when she came to college as she transitioned into academic reading from fiction. From the start of the pandemic, she has read a lot on the Naxal movement’s spread in India, Shashi’s Tharoor’s ‘ Why I Am A Hindu’, and Yashodhara. She has enjoyed reading about contemporary history and finds the feeling of being able to read at her own pace quite exciting. “I think it is okay to take your time right now and go slow with reading a book. It is quite a difficult time for us right now and it’s okay to take your time into reading a book”, says Srimoyee.
As readers flock back to books and do what they loved doing before the hustle-bustle of college life had taken away the old joy of grabbing a book and reading it for yourself, the pandemic and the situation around disappears for a few moments. A book takes its reader away for some time. If outdoor fun is limited, grabbing a book right now might be the thing you would want to give a try!