Books change your world

Sandhya Renukamba

“Books inspire change. Dramatic, powerful periods in our lives are often triggered by a book — or books — we've read.”

— Pat Williams in Read for Your Life: 11 Ways to Better Yourself Through Books

Books have been significant in the personal journeys of many exceptional women. There is no such thing as a book for women — the kind suggested by online sites as suitable books to buy as a gift for the woman in your life for Women's Day or Mother's Day — so these can often be eclectic.

Subhashree Beeman, a Spanish and French translator and mother of two, says, "Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead had a huge influence on me. It taught me that there is no other way of doing anything other than giving my best. Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture brought to me my identity as a parent and Clarissa Estes' Women Who Run with Wolves made me aware of my womanhood. I learnt that I was no less for being a woman."

Quite a few women endorsed Women Who Run with Wolves, one of whom is Nayantara Mallya, freelance writer and a communications specialist at Accenture. She also swears by Harriet Lerner's The Dance of Anger, which postulates that anger is a signal that we need to pay attention to and it can be used as a powerful vehicle for creating lasting change in our lives. "In fact, all Lerner's books, especially The Dance of Connection, The Mother Dance and The Dance of Intimacy are books I'll recommend to all women," she says. "I would face a lot of nonsense from people. These books made me see that I do not need to, and that I could use my anger as a tool to change my life."

Sudeshna Shome Ghosh, an independent editorial consultant, who has worked with many publishing houses, including Penguin, Red Turtle, and Aleph Book Company, loves Satyajit Ray's books. "I knew them by heart. These are old friends and as a mother I loved introducing my child to these books," she says. “A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth made me realise that Indian writing in English can be exciting. This helped me as an editor. Every character and situation became a little signpost of how good writing can create new worlds," she adds.

This is something Sayoni Basu, director, Duckbill Books, agrees with. Sayoni, who has also worked with Scholastic, Puffin, Penguin and Oxford Press University, says "The canvas is so large yet so crowded, it exists as another world and one I seek refuge in whenever I am very distressed with this one. It helps me in coping with stress, of which there is plenty as a woman in publishing."

Anushka Ravishankar, who is an award-winning author of several children's books, lists a few books that have affected her journey and growth. "There is a book about nonsense verse that I loved. It made me a fan of nonsense for life and also started me off on writing nonsense. "To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee affected me in many ways, in the way it shows prejudice, and how it can be dealt with. It has also influenced my writing a lot. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut raised some complex moral questions, and I still agonise over it."

Sangitha Krishnamurthi, a Bangalore-based blogger and mother of two, who left a lucrative corporate career to follow her dream of becoming a special educator, says, "Little Women was very personal — I laughed and cried with the girls, learned from their charity and sharing. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe blew my mind away about people's cruelty. I also wondered at Uncle Tom and his tolerance, his Gandhian ways, much before Gandhi knew how to be himself. Freedom At Midnight made me to fall in love with my country all over again. The level of research and detail that went into the book was eye opening. Much of my world-view today has been affected by these books."

Tanu Shree Singh, a lecturer of psychology at Delhi University and bibliophile-in-chief at the Reading Raccoons, says, "Oliver Twist, which I read in school, was the first book that made me realise that one can cry uncontrollably while reading. The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth made me fall in love with poetry. And even as an adult, Harry Potter rescued me and brought me back to books."

Another Harry Potter aficionado is Anitha Ramkumar, who's an engineer turned schoolteacher and a blogger. She also lists Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Palace of Illusions among the books that have changed her life. "I can mark my life as 'before I read these books' and 'after I read these books'. While Potter pushed the boundaries of my imagination the other opened up my perspective like no book had ever before. Palace of Illusions taught me to think how the same situation can be looked at from another point of view, and also that nothing can prepare you for what you see."

The written word has always been the harbinger of great change. Revolutions have happened as a result of great writing. At the personal level, too, books can be the friends one can turn to, to be guided, to seek help, to uplift, transport, and often transform any reader and not just women.