By Aisha Azeemah
A book to champion the very existence of books was launched in Suva last week at the Samabula Campus Art Gallery of the University of Fiji. A compendium of the experiences of those Pacific thinkers whose paths have been determined by reading, the book Moveable Magic: Re-making the World, according to its editors, seeks to prove the value of reading to the next generation.
Renowned Pacific writer, Professor Subramani, says “the book Moveable Magic: Re-making the World is born out of deep concern about the state of reading in society, where young people, in particular high school and college students, have turned away from books and are lost in the abyss manufactured by modern gadgets.”
“For various reasons, modern education is unable to arrest this alarming slide down into a new form of serfdom and human misery. This can be catastrophic for the future of our planet,” Professor Subramani shared.
“This book, a collaborative effort, offers, through the reading experiences of enlightened readers some reason for hope, and the findings of researchers caution us about the future with alarming data on decline in reading of books in all sections of society.”
Vice Chancellor of the University of Fiji, Professor Shaista Shameem shared that her love of books and reading began well before she had acquired the ability to read. A little girl lost in the fantastic tales her father would spin for her and her sisters at bedtime, Professor Shameem had been more than eager to learn how to read at an early age.
“We knew that there had to be a book somewhere with those stories in them,” she said of her father’s nightly tales, “So I learned to read really early as a result of that. And I think that was my dad’s aim.”
The works of her father, a poet and playwright himself, had all seemingly been lost to time, according to Professor Shameem. They would have stayed lost, had Professor Subramani not approached her to collaborate on Moveable Magic.
“Nobody knows what’s happened to all his writing,” she shared at the book launch event. “Mum used to write it and keep it for him, but then after she passed away we lost it. And Praveen Chandra, who remembered my dad’s writing, found it somewhere in some obscure long lost publication! And this is actually in the book, we reproduced one of his poems for the book.”
The book’s designer, Praveen Chandra said of finding the lost poem, “When my dear friend Vijendra Kumar, former editor of Fiji Times, died, his wife gave me many of his books. In that collection I came across a book in Hindi- “Gaganachal”. The poem was in this book in the Devanagari script. I transliterated it into the Perso/Arabic script and translated it into English.”
“The sisters were very pleased and emotional to get the poem,” he added.
“Moveable Magic was a very difficult book to do. Shaista and I were exchanging emails many times a day up till Sunday or Monday morning. It was Shaista’s tenacity and detail-mindedness that resulted in the book being printed just in time for the launch,” he said.
More than offering readers the experiences of Pacific thinkers, academics, and artists, the likes of Larry Thomas, Jane Ricketts, Professor Sudesh Mishra, Susan Sela, Professor Anurag Subramani, Dr Nikhat Shameem, and many other brilliant minds, the book also includes research data into reading habits, making the book a great pickup for a wide audience.
Moveable Magic: Re-making the World was officially launched on October 1st, 2024, by University of Fiji Pro Chancellor Pandit Bhuwan Dutt, and is now available for sale through the University and select bookshops.