India, Feb. 24 -- Reading is a private affair. Libraries are memories in the mind. It is a book that decides when to be read, rather than the reader who decides when to read it. Despite this closed-door, and closed-mind trait of reading, the issue exploded publicly in the past few weeks. First, an Indian author in a British newspaper questioned the reading habits of Indians, despite the successes of literary festivals, which now numbered 100 a year, and attracted millions of visitors. India-hands, including foreign writers on Indian issues, reprimanded the column. An Indian magazine took up the cudgels on behalf of the Indian readers to prove that the reading habit was alive and kicking in the country. Some pointed to average print runs o...