India, May 8 -- As someone who took pride in losing herself in a book for hours on end until the real world receded entirely from my consciousness, I have to admit - with a certain degree of shame - that my concentration span has been shot to hell over the past few years. Like so many others I find myself endlessly distracted when I sit down to read - or write, or watch TV, etc.

The culprit is, of course, social media, to which we have all become hopelessly addicted. The siren call of Instagram distracts us from when we are trying to get some work done. Doomscrolling beckons when we should be engaging with family. And so on.

Over the past few months, however, I have been trying to get my concentration back to how it was in the good old ...