I was thinking today, as I rode along in a tuk-tuk, how it was that I first learned to read fast. See, I had learned to read — my mother ensured I did, perched atop the ‘High-Stool’: snotty with tears for being forced to read — but read I did and never put down a book willingly since.

I remember stumbling over the word ‘O.K’. ‘owwkk’, I read, awkwardly. ‘No. O, dot K’, my mother corrected me from where she was standing at the kitchen sink, hands busy, ears listening. I was amazed by the simplicity — of course I knew OK, I used it all the time — but this was what it looked like?

There were many other books I read since that Christian story on a leaflet she got me to read that day; but I really learned to read fast, on the back of her red motorcycle. They called her the ‘rathu motorcycleey nona’ — the lady on the red motorcycle — everyone in our ‘area’ did; a female on a motorcycle was a rare sight, but she was accepted in part with amusement and in part with respect.

Sitting on the back of her motorcycle, arms clasped tightly around her comfortable waist, cheek pressed against her back, in the hot sun, I would read the store signs as we whizzed by— of course I remember none of the brands from then, now. Very often, I wouldn't get to finish reading a word, and so, I began to read quick, and then quicker.

I’d usually swallow the word, almost — greedily have my eyes ‘take in’ the image of the word, or words, before ‘reading’ it: when that voice tells you what it is you've seen.

As an adult, now, I am as easily distracted by store signs, as I was when I was a child; textual communication has my interest. But I now notice other aspects as well — colors used, fonts used, logos, the size of the lettering, coupled with the question why?

As I work in design now (and this is not to say I am a designer myself, but I work in close proximity to designers) I am able to learn new things, and answers my questions — what is brand identity, how is it created, what drives it, a logo and its components; these things swirl about my head, and I feel my ears about to burst with the intake of imagery.

It excites me.

And I can’t wait to learn more — I can’t wait to learn all I can about communication — in its visual and textual shapes and forms, and how it shapes the world I live in.