Can fictional characters teach you life lessons?

I’ve lived in India my whole life but have been lucky enough to experience different cultures across this diverse nation and have had the privilege of traveling to other countries to enjoy different cultures. This did make me feel like I was culturally “woke”. Well, this was how I felt in February 2020.

Fast forward and suddenly we find ourselves in the middle of a pandemic. During the lockdown, we were all pushed into a new reality. Staying at home, learning to work remotely and keeping ourselves safe from this deadly virus all while learning to cope with the loss was overwhelming but something we all had to do.

During this time, I immersed myself in books as a way to cope with this sudden change. I chose to read a lot of fiction to jump into a world far from the present one. And wow, what an experience it has been. So, what did these fictional characters teach me:

1) I am not culturally woke. While I studied about different cultural issues at law school, reading about first hand perspective even through a the lens of fictional character is different. Reading about racism experienced by an African American character written by an African American Author made me realise that a little travelling doesn’t really teach you about culture — you only experience it on the periphery.

2) Getting transported to a different reality is therapeutic. Those few minutes that you get to be somewhere else is self care. Looking back at 2020, there was a brief period that I felt unproductive at work but spent a lot of time with my books. I started getting worried about my low motivation level but I told myself it was ok cause self care is as important. Today, I am grateful that I decided to take that “me time”.

3) Fictional characters can teach and inspire you to become better. Honestly, the books I read had some powerful stories that made me kinder. I realised the importance of not being judgmental. I realised the importance of valuing relationships that gave me so much strength. So many of these characters continue to inspire me.

4) Bad bosses in books are based on real life examples. Whenever I read a book which had a bad boss, I would take a few minutes to see I had any of those characteristics. Books often discuss the thoughts of the characters and this helps you understand how certain behaviours can impact a person. If I found a similar quality in me, I spent time to work on it.

Through out school, I was someone who absolutely disliked reading. In 11th Grade, I bumped into a family friend at an airport. While we were waiting to board our flight, we walked into bookstore and he asked me to pick a book. I announced that I don’t like reading. He told me I was a fool and forced me to buy a book. I felt some weird sense of obligation and decided to read that book. My world changed.

PS — If you want to see what I’ve read in the past month and my thoughts on it, do check out the Instagram page @between_sips