By: Umar Amin
What nectar is to honeybees, books are to humans.
Why do we need books? The answer is spartan, ‘to assuage thirst, we must drink’. To feel the waters we have to wade, darting from the seaside won’t satiate us. Book Reading is an intellectual and cultural activity that keeps our minds alive and kicking and serves as an immaculate escape to bounce back with the boom.
The ocean of knowledge, culture and sapience, unknown lands have passed on to us through the rivers of books, and rock and rolled from the finest of the marbles. Books have fended in their bosoms, civilizations, cultures, traditions, values, knowledge and the mystery of every speck of dust in this infinite universe.
Books have dashed to pieces the posts of despotic crowns and slayed tyrants throughout epochs by churning revolutions such as French Revolution, the Russian revolution, several freedom struggles etc.
There are myriad genres of books such as literature, philosophy, anthropology, science, mathematics, cosmology, travel, religion, medicine, history etc. which help to develop eclectic skills.
Books play a climacteric role to realize the potential, developing social skills and perspectives, grow emotionally, mentally, and economically. They also help to develop communicative and other linguistic abilities to be marketable.
Books have a solution to every problem, answer to every doubt, and question to every hypothesis. They are Polaris to steer us in the darkest nights of our life’s voyage.
A house without books is as spooking as a cemetery pervaded with people but devoid of life and books as irises therein blooming and wafting aroma but far from the reach of the dead. Since yore books have conformed as the beacon
In the darkest phases and aided civilizations to illuminate the flambeaus.
However, the man seems to cut off his olfactory senses to inhale the lignin and is evolving into a bibliophobe even biblioclastic perchance his vision is clouded by the haze of ignorance.
The book is a thin line that untangles light from the gloaming.
“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelt out is a spark.” —Victor Hugo
In the contemporary era where people are turning into robots and robots into humans, ensue in inhuman rites and are evolving as fragile varmints to tackle any strain, handle pests and embark on a journey, only to cave to the problems.
Books can serve as a panacea and help to expose people to traditions, cultures, history and ethical values to understand their quiddity and books are probably the best sources where treasures are locked up waiting for us to put the keys in the keyhole and gather the gems.
Books expose us to the outside world, extend our horizons and act as portals to connect with the unknown.
They not only apprise us about things but teach life- ordeals, fear, love, anger, compassion, empathy, sympathy, challenges, hard work, investing time, struggles, optimism, dismay, confidence, patience, faith, belief in the instincts and have never yielding spirit like Santiago in “The Old Man and the Sea” Who despite confronting challenges and setbacks still has an undefeated nerve and continues to do whatever he must do to the best of his ability, no matter what tribulations befall him and proves” Man can be Destroyed not Defeated”
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” – Jhumpa Lahiri
The advancement of science and technology has revolutionised our lives.
And brought ease and comfort but at the cost of something beyond our imagination. Though the internet has made access easy to books via e-lib, but the joy flipping pages give, is indomitable. The irony is that the Internet has expropriated from us- The book-reading Culture – Our Link with the Past, present and Future. To converse with people, live cultures, adopt values, smell creativity, and admire innovation. Book reading is not a mere sport, it is like drinking from the Kauser and assuaging the quenchless thirst or fiddling with words like a blacksmith who moulds iron in his smithy and silhouettes infinite pristine tools.
Modern man’s reliance on technologies primarily the internet is catastrophic and augmentation in screen time is not just affecting creative dexterity but making people couch potatoes, infirm, eunuch and whatnot which eventually opens doors to infinite pandemonium and the shoddy reading habit leads to anti-social behaviour—for instance, school violence, procrastination, lack of critical knack, massive failure, moral degradation, ingenuity, problem-solving attitude and proficiency and examination malpractice.
Book reading is the key remedy to these maladies.
Reading books is treading with poets through vales, thriving with novelists, bathing in the Nile of history, fighting along Alexander, discovering clefts, travelling in the multiverse, looking for parallel selves, making time travels, finding treasures and the elixirs, going on expeditions for Holy Grail, digging the past and travelling through hearts. Books would grow up our imagination and creativity, develop ingenuity and rise flames of innovation. They help us to be everything that is otherwise impossible in this ephemeral life – we can be Dr Faustus, Griffin of invisible man, Santiago of Old Man, Kurtz Of Heart Of Darkness, Ulysses, Sherlock Holmes, Atticus Finch and everything to everybody.
“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” – Fahrenheit 451″
Every book sets forth multiple airs and an avid reader will learn to develop his own, identify his identity, seek his self, his distinctive knacks and be the best version of himself. Books are the only reprieve that shall rouse us from the intemperance of indifference. They have less risk of falling into debauchery and obsession as compared to modern technology.
This is high time we open the eyes of our minds and let the scent of books pass through our senses and wake us from inebriation to see the clear skies of vision and fervour.
