Are Hefty Books Daunting?

Ask every Bengali household and you’d know the importance of books in our lives. Apart from the books in our curriculum, we’d often be encouraged to indulge in books that majorly belonged to fictional, non-fictional, detective and adventurous genres. And, we’d be awaiting the International Book Fair (an annual book fair) to meet our favourite authors and grab our favourite books. 

Those days in the bookshelves, whenever I’d spot a hefty book, I’d declare it to be scary enough for me to read, especially if it talked about the anecdotes of ghosts. Perhaps it’s my subconscious mind that gets me to pen this piece, now that am currently reading a hefty novel. One that stretches over 1000 pages. 1,129 to be precise. No, it’s not Vikram Seth’s ‘A Suitable Boy’ in case you’re wondering. But it’s famous author Ramachandra Guha’s “Gandhi: The Years That Changed The World - 1914 to 1948”.  Now, as you already might have guessed, reading this hefty product is quite challenging indeed, in fact, it gets me thinking about the author and the intensity of research that he had to go through in order to compile this book. And, since this is history and not fiction, a lot of added effort goes into verifying facts and cross-checking them, as one can’t just put across anything out of the blue. 

Now, addressing the headline directly, and talking about whether or not hefty books are daunting in reality, I’d say that it’d majorly depend and vary from person to person. Although, I wouldn’t shy away from mentioning that when I first picked up this copy at the bookstore, I was not only daunted but also awestruck. And, as I was carrying the book back home, I could see people in the street staring at me, almost with pitiful eyes, perhaps calculating the pain I’d be going through while reading the book. 

On the contrary, now when I’ve almost crossed 800 pages, I realise that hefty books do not necessarily mean they are daunting, something they can be inspiring, motivating and fun as well. I mention this specifically since I’ve witnessed all three. Inspiring and motivating because Gandhiji, as a persona bears the capacity to somehow evoke the senses of pride and love towards him. Fun since he too indulged in lightening up situations once in a while. 

For instance, his conversation with King George V is a remarkable one where he mentions that he didn’t feel the need to dress up, as the King was wearing enough for the two of them. Now, there’s a tinge of humour, right there. 

In a nutshell, and after analysing the points mentioned above, I can safely deduce that hefty books aren’t necessarily daunting and that they can be fun too. As Gandhiji said, “I’d die long before if I didn’t have a sense of humour.”

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