Guest Blog : Reading and Knowing More by Soham

Soham is a 10-year-old boy who lives with his parents and grandmother in Sinhagad, Pune. His father, Ajit Vaishampayan and I have been colleagues and friends from my first employment.

Soham is a keen observer and has an opinion about everything. And why not? If you are well-read, you deserve to have that, isn’t it? His writing below tells you more about that.

While going from pre-primary school to primary school, I was very much excited about the new things I have to learn.

Then I asked my father, “Baba, there are many new things and new topics to learn in higher classes, isn’t it?”

He said ,”Of course yes  but for that you have to study and read a lot.”

So the next day my mother and I tried to read newspaper.

But oh! It was just boring n dull!
Slowly n steadily I started to read various topics such as headlines, jokes and even tried some of the puzzles.

During that period my mother used to bring the periodical ‘Magic Pot’.

It was very colorful n interesting having short stories, puzzles, information about science and nature.

I liked to read them and was waiting for every alternate Wednesday for the new Magic Pot to come.

Aaji also encouraged me to read Marathi Balmitra to enhance my Marathi vocabulary.

Due to studies, extracurricular activities ,TV n net, we are so occupied that reading newspapers and books is very less.

But because of my Baba I want the TOI newspaper after I brush my teeth daily.
It is becoming my habit now and I know it is going to benefit me lifelong for my studies and in my development.

I enjoy it thoroughly. I read sports page regularly and other pages. Sometimes I get full information of EPL and football details.

Now I got lot of details about intricacies of US elections.
As I went on reading the newspaper, I started to know about US President elections and came to know about Donald Trump n Hillary Clinton who were the nominees.

I also got to know about the electoral college system and how it works.For example, Florida has many seats. So, winning Florida is like winning the half of the election. Every state has a particular number of seats and when you win that state you get a certain number of seats. When you get 270 seats you will win. As I was watching the live updates on TV, when Trump won Florida it was almost clear victory for him. I really enjoyed reading about elections.

The sports page of The Times of India newspaper is my favorite. My football coach used to call me Wikipedia as I almost know many things about sports like football, cricket, kabaddi, etc.

Of course, because of reading, my vocabulary is increasing. My confidence, my contribution in discussions on various topics in school as well as at home also. My general knowledge is increasing and I know it is going to have good long term effect on me.

I know in Marathi is rightly said,
“वाचाल तर वाचाल.”