Omair Alavi

The portable magic of books

Times change and sometimes the change has a positive impact on those affected by it. However, the change involving book reading has not gone down well especially for someone like me who eats, drinks, and reads books. Yes, I can travel to an unchartered territory through the new age book reading that is mostly done via applications, but the struggle of finding the right book, and then enjoying every page of it is gone.

Book reading used to be a healthy activity back in the day; it helped one differentiate between ‘educated’ people and ‘normal’ ones. Someone with a book in hand was hardly ever found shouting in public, in a filthy mood, or worried about worldly things, because his escape pod was always with him. One that gave him the key to multiple dimensions, where one adventure after another waited for him. Or her.

When American entrepreneur and author Jim Rohn said that ‘Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary,’ he had no clue that one day, people will stop seeking to rise at all. Hand a book that you consider close to your heart over to a youngster and then see his discomfort, and agony. This certainly wasn’t the case when I was growing up, when gifting someone a book was considered intellectually relevant.

Sadly, reading books is now considered a waste of time when in fact it remains the healthiest of activities, especially for the brain. Books are still considered a gateway to knowledge, but only for those who give them the importance they deserve. Gone are the days when having a library membership card added value to a person’s stature, and quoting your favourite book or author added weight to an argument. For today, whatever is on Google (or Wikipedia), is the final word, at least for those who consider being seen with a book an insult and regard it as a punishment without realizing what they are missing.

The death of bookstalls and libraries all over the world, especially in countries like ours, has further destroyed the situation. With no Pak American Bookshop in Karachi’s Saddar area (it closed in the 90s), a forgotten Thomas & Thomas hiding somewhere near Regal Chowk and a less active Paramount Bookshop in PECHS, book buying has gone down and is on its way out. Alongside these changes, the educational standard has also gone down, and ‘vocabulary deficiency’ has become common in the youngsters of today.

There was a time when friends like mine used to throng the Khori Garden area where the challenge was to find good books and magazines that couldn’t be found elsewhere in the city. Today, websites have taken over, but the joy of finding a book or two from a ‘collection’ was a different experience. I still remember searching for my favorite books in the many Old Book Shops in Saddar and Clifton and finding ‘lost treasures’ for an unimaginable price, something the current generation wouldn’t even be able to imagine.

When book reading was a thing, everything was above ordinary. TV dramas, radio shows, and even films tackled subjects that were relevant to society. In fact, quiz programs on TV and radio were full of information and contributed to improving the general knowledge of the viewers. However, with Twitter feeds, Facebook posts, and Instagram taking over book reading as the most favoured mode of reading, things have gone lopsided everywhere. You don’t see TV dramas tackling social issues as gracefully as they did before, and the same can be said of films that rely more on cheap humor and recycled topics instead of something pertinent. As for quiz shows, they shamelessly highlight that as a nation we excel at carrying a lemon on a spoon or devouring mangoes rather than naming a former President.

There was a time in Karachi and Lahore when notable authors, poets, playwrights, and enthusiasts were found in coffeehouses, libraries, and even in the scattered bookshops in the city, discussing books, current affairs, and the cultural scene. However, that era was pushed back after the closure of coffeehouses during the 1970s, libraries in the 1980s, and the advent of the World Wide Web in the 1990s. Their space was taken over by more financially viable housing complexes, shopping malls, and office buildings. The reason was the ascent of television and later Cable TV, followed by the internet and later the cinema culture that was booming till COVID-19 cut its flight.

The increase in book prices, the availability of online books (for free), and the scarcity of quality bookshops are also to be blamed, but while buying books is still a thing abroad, it is nothing in Pakistan. Even the British Council Library in Karachi had to reinvent itself to recover from the change. With Amazon on the verge of entering Pakistan, the Kindle might become the next big thing for the current generation, but will it sustain the test of the times or not, that remains a big question.