Sound of Silence

It hounds me, my lonely self
Amidst grey towering concrete
All glitter, glamour, show of wealth
Shadow keeps me by, the hollow street

Wading through the desert sand
Waves of thoughts, ocean the mind
All earned and lost, empty hand
Past, in the eyes re-wind

The rainbow hue, the moon-lit night
The blossoming flower, the naughty stream,
Thundering clouds, the lightening strike,
Mountains and valleys, through all been

Scaled the peaks, oceans and seas, no bound
by my side, the lovely eyes - your crown,
Then destiny struck, blessing sorrow profound
In the deafening Sound of Silence, I drown


- Piyush Kumar Srivastava
December 18, 2001, Provo

Rocket Reader

I landed upon this cool software a few days back. It trains the user to improve one's reading speed. The importance of speed reading cannot be over-emphasised. However, most people are not consciously aware that their slow reading might actually be imparing their efficiency in everyday tasks. If you are spending an hour reading the news paper every day, and yet covering only about 50% of the total contents, its time you get your reading skills upgraded. I always knew that my reading skills leave a lot of scope for improvement, but I was never able to give any seious thought to improving upon it. For sure, I did not have the tools to get going. One straight-forward technique is to read a lot. This does not work very well for me because firstly, I have never been an avid reader. I did not have the inclination to read books or anything right from my childhood. Even today my reading is limited to newspapers, some websites and emails in the office. This way I was never going to improve upon my reading.

This software allows me to practice fast reading while I am going through the regular news or websites. It provides the tools to time the reading speed (in words per minute) and also test the comprehension. It has a data base of stories, rated at different levels, which the user is expected to read fast and then answer questions posed by the software. It also has options to flash a set of phrases, depending on the chosen speed, which the user is expected to see and absorb quickly. I started using the trial version recently and have found it to be very useful.

Frankly, I have not been doing too well at it just yet. In fact, when I read fast, I lose upon comprehension (drops to 30-50%) and vice-versa. I am not giving up though, these things cannot be picked up instantly. I understand that this requires months of practice and I am willing to put in this effort. May be I will update by blog on my progress when I sense a measurable change in my reading speed. Currently I am able to do well on comprehension with 300-350 wpm, but lose rapidly on it when I pump up the speed to 500 wpm.