THE READER AS LEADER

THE act of reading reminds us that other worlds exist besides our own—that we are not the centre of the universe.

- CP SURENDRAN

Last week I read two remarkable books: Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li and Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi. The first is a meditation on pain by a writer and mother trying to make sense of the suicides of her two gifted sons. The second is an ingenious metafiction presented as the rediscovered travel memoir of a young Japanese woman writer touring colonial Taiwan in the 1930s. Accompanied by a brilliant Taiwanese interpreter with whom she falls in love, the narrator imagines herself sophisticated, worldly and free of prejudice, as do most liberals. Yet the journey slowly reveals that her affection and generosity are entangled with the assumptions of imperial power. What begins as a travelogue becomes an exploration of language, desire and colonial blindness, showing how easily we mistake our image of ourselves for who we really are.

If the general level of our politicians is any indication, the last thing they read was their party newspaper praising them. The new Kerala chief minister, V D Satheesan, is an exception. In 2025 alone, Satheesan is on record saying he completed sixty books. His predecessor, Pinarayi Vijayan, also reads, but I suspect it is mostly his own speeches.

The relationship between books and politics has a long and distinguished history. During the long years of imprisonment by the British, Jawaharlal Nehru transformed confinement into a company of the great. From his prison cell he read history, philosophy, science and literature, producing works such as The Discovery of India and Glimpses of World History.