Lack of reading habit should be studied

Lack of reading habit should be studied

MADIKERI: ‘Serious research has to be conducted on the lack of reading habit among children and adults,’’ said Sahithya Kendra, Mangalore, manager K Ratnakar Kulai.

Speaking to this website's newspaper on the response and sale of books in the book exhibition being held in Madikeri for the last one week, he said, ‘‘Since children spend most of the time at school, the influence of teachers on them would be greater and they can create reading habits among students.’’

He said that many schools in Dakshina Kannada give prizes to students in the form of books and this has helped inrease reading habits among children.Instead of giving glasses, plates and momentos as prizes, students should be given prizes in the form of valuable books. This will install discipline and curiosity among them, says Ratnakar.Ratnakar, who has been associated with the Sahithya Kendra Trust for the past 19 years, said he derives lot of satisfaction from his job as he has been a book lover from childhood onwards.

Sahithya Kendra Trust, Mangalore has completed 25 years in conducting various programmes and activities and has taken up sale of books as a social service.The book exhibition is being conducted for the second consecutive year in Madikeri. Ratnakar informs that the sales and response has been good so far.

Exhibitions were also conducted in Gonikoppa, Virajpet and Somwarpet but due to various reasons, the response was not up to the expected level, he added.He also announced the publication of a new newsletter called ‘‘Saraswathi,’’ which will provide important book reviews and details of new arrivals.

The Sahithya Kendra has also experimented door delivery of books called ‘‘Mane Manege Pusktaka’’ and has got good response throughout DK, Uttarkannada and Udupi districts where it has covered more than 150 villages, Ratnakar added.Books on personality development, philosophy, cookery, designing, tailoring etc have been on display during the exhibition.He said this time more women and students turned out at the exhibition.

Along with the Sahithya Kendra, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kodagu Kendra, ISKCON, Madikeri and Sri Aurobindo Kali Sastry Institute of Vedic Culture,(SAKSI), Bangalore has also put up stalls.Sreenivas Kulkarni from SAKSI, said: ‘‘The institution is seven years old and has brought out 101 books so far. We have come to Madikeri to bring awareness on Vedic literature and philosophy of great men like Sri Aurobindo,’’ he said.

Kulkarni also said that it was the idea of Dr RL Kashyap professor at Purude University, USA, to provide reading material on Vedic literature and other deeper themes in philosophy in all the languages of India.Kulkarni also lauded the efforts of the administrator and one of the trustees of the institution, RV Jahagirdar who too penned many books for the institution to make popular the vedic literature and other philosophies.He said that books like Rudra Mantragalu,

Pranayama and books on mantras are in great demand.Kulkarni also informed that stalls have been put in other ‘sahithya sammelans’ and various parts of Bangalore.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE120060210012313&Topic=0&Title=Southern%20News%20-%20Karnataka&Page=K