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ROHIT -- Good evening Praveen! Hai, Varun! So, how did you spend your weekend? Did you go out anywhere as Monday also was a holiday?

VARUN -- I went with my uncle's family to their farm house to spend the 3-day hols. How about you Praveen?

PRAVEEN -- Well, I sat at home and indulged myself in a hobby with which I have been out-of-touch for sometime.

ROHIT -- Don't tell me that Varun's primary vocation became your hobby.

PRAVEEN -- (smiling) No, I didn't 'eat&sleep', if that's what you mean. I spent my time reading books, which I bought at the book fair.

VARUN -- I wanted to go but somehow I just couldn't make it. What sort of books did you buy?

PRAVEEN -- Mostly non-fiction types, like self-improvement books, books written by our own President, and Kapil Dev's autobiography.

ROHIT -- I heard that this time the fair was a real success. The number of people who visited the fair and the number of books sold had doubled since the previous one, it seems.

PRAVEEN -- You are right. It was so crowded but the way the stalls were put up this year were better than the last time. It was convenient to move about and the books were well laid out to catch the public eye.

VARUN -- It is nice to know that even when the visual media has people wrapped around its finger, the reading habit has not died.

ROHIT -- They say that books are our best friends and companions. I think that this reading habit should be inculcated right from the beginning in children. I feel ashamed to say that I am yet to develop this habit.

VARUN -- I do like to read but the problem is that after a few pages, my level of concentration takes a nose dive and I just flip through the pages.

PRAVEEN -- I enjoy reading as I feel that nowhere else you have such a great scope for imagination. In other mediums, one's capacity for imagination and visualisation gets curbed but while reading, you are given a vast canvas to paint your imagination on. In children, reading habit helps them to build their vocabulary, creative writing potential surmounts and their power of concentration escalates.

ROHIT -- I agree with you on that. I feel that each parent should encourage his/her child to read not just for any benefit but for the pleasure of it. It should not be forced on them as it may work to the contrary and they may develop an aversion to reading on the whole.

VARUN -- One advantage is that it will keep them out of mischief and they will be less troublesome. I think that from now on, I will make it a point to read at least a few pages a day. The problem is 'when'?

ROHIT -- It is easy. Whenever you feel the urge to eat, take a book. Who knows, you may end up reading more than Praveen in that case.

VARUN -- (laughing) I asked for it, didn't I?

Radha N.