She may be a mover-and-shaker in the corporate world, but books remain the ‘first love’ of Priyanshi Patel, founder, Olixir oils and Karma Foundation.
Patel says she inherited the hobby of reading from her mother and has been a voracious reader all her life. “My earliest memory of reading is the Chicken Soup series. I loved them all and I read it at a very young age,” she said, as we spoke at her office off the SG highway.
“I never sleep without reading. I try to read a minimum of at least 100 books a year. I am actively involved I spreading the joy of reading, by meeting authors, promoting their work and learning more about their process,” Patel said.
Patel is the founder of Ahmedabad Book Club (ABC), which regularly organises reading sessions, book launches and conducts author interviews. The latest ABC offering is Readathon — an online reading festival where people come together to read and encourage each other to pick up the habit.
While she reads “everything”, Patel’s all-time favourite book is, not surprisingly, the Bhagvad Geeta. “I learn about life and about myself through the Geeta, and I tend to return to it for most questions in my life,” said Patel.
Patel counts The Prophet by Khalil Gibran and Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch as some of the books that have had a lasting influence on her.
Being a parent, Patel also emphasised the importance of reading to children to inspire them to pick up a book. “My daughter observes me reading every single night. I feel this is the right way of bringing up aware kids,” Patel explained.
“Books comfort me when I’m feeling low or have any doubts. I read the book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse recently, just when I needed it the most,” said Patel.
