First Person | Read. Reflect. Repeat

Ghazala Wahab

Nearly 12 years ago, when I first heard the refrain from a retired Indian Army lieutenant general that young officers do not read any longer, it was a lament. He rued the fact that the counter-insurgency operations — the endless and thankless low-level war (now referred to as no-war-no-peace) — leave young officers with no time to read even professional material, let alone literature. As a result, the overall intellect level of the officer class has progressively been on a decline.

But why a professional soldier would need to read literature, if not for mere pleasure, I wondered aloud.

It is true that reading literature is pure pleasure, he argued, but it also trains your intellect to absorb new ideas and concepts. It can also be inspiring, he said, adding that, he is not even expecting young officers who are overworked and hard-pressed for time to read fiction. “But at least they should read professional literature and not take short-cuts by memorising the précis to clear various examina