“READ ALL ABOUT IT”! by Des Kelly

“Read all about it, for, the more one delves,

We help each other, to help ourselves” D.K.

Over the years, I have read thousands of them. More clever quotes from clever people. Some of them easy to understand, others quite difficult to comprehend, still, each & every one of them has been written, after much thought, on the part of the writer. The one above is my own, for eLanka.

I was lucky, in many ways, shapes & forms, but the luckiest “gifts” from the Almighty to the humblest of his servants (this writer), has been firstly, the innate love of “Reading”. This “love-affair” is spontaneous, unheralded, and to those like myself, started very early in life.

I remember it well. Starting school at the Convent of Our Lady of Victories, in Moratuwa, Ceylon, as soon as I turned five years of age, I was handed my first “Reader” by a very beautiful Mother Directress at the time, “Mother Seetha”.

It was mid July, 1941, my first “book”, handed to me by this Woman, who stirred in me the feeling that I had to learn to read this thing, if only for HER.

A week or two went by, my natural ability to read was already apparent to my teacher and so she then took me to the main library of the School, run by a British Nun, Mother Brittall. Here, in what seemed to be a magnificent room to a young boy, there were thousands of books, neatly stored in a huge glass-fronted bookcase, the “top” of which could only be accessed by climbing a solid wood movable ladder.

Mother Brittall also noticed perhaps, this young man was very interested in the books lining the walls of the library, as I was, indeed. I still could not read, of course, I was just getting through my first “Reader”, but I clearly remember that I still loved to climb that “ladder” to reach these very old books, could not understand a single printed word in them but would turn the pages over simply to “sniff” the special “aroma” that these books possessed.I sometimes think of all that “‘dust” I must have inhaled, but if it was “the dust of learning”, then I thank God for it.

So, this was where my first serious love affair with books began.(I was born with music already in my bones, but that is another story). Books, books, books !, I still love them.

My entire education was based on “books”. My “College” education, believe it or not, was between the total period of

1941-1952. I went from what was termed the “baby-class” to “Junior D”, the most “notorious” Form, at St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya, where I determined that “Math” would be better left to “Engineers”, they needed Algebra and Geometry, I could not even “stand” the terms, “Arithmetic” was for “Accountants” & “Bank Managers”, “Science” could be left for “Scientists” & ” Medical Professors”, & “False Oratory” would be well suited for “Politicians”.

Ever since I was “knee-high to a grasshopper” I wanted to be either an actor, singer, entertainer & being slightly narcissistic, all three. Nothing whatsoever to do with Mathematics. I WOULD need a little bit of Arithmetic, of course, in order to count all the money earned, on the other three, so I studied the “tables” on the back of my “Exercise- book, not only diligently, but carefully as well!,

Anyway, one thing at a time Des. While I feel very sure that the older Lankan/Aussies will read & understand what I am trying to say, here, my message is for the “youngsters” who will be the future leaders of the World.

Put aside your iPhones, your “Virtual-Reality” equipment, your “Computer-Games”, & various other “gadgets”, SOMETIMES, get some BOOKS (on subjects that interest you), and READ, READ, READ.! It’s the only way to SUCCEED.

eLanka is fine, for our readers, “on-line”, but make no mistake, my “news” is not fake, CHILDREN, & those, not on-line, I propose, just follow your nose, pay heed now, & READ.