"I fear India is in danger of having more writers than readers soon"
The most celebrated children's authors of India, Ruskin Bond said this in an interview last year. Although he told this from the prospective of publishing becoming easier with the passing time, maybe he was indirectly aiming at the gradual decrease in the number of readers in the present kids. You don't believe me? Okay, try out this social experiment:
Remember him, right? Of course, who can forget the iconic Chacha Chaudhary from our childhood days, whose brain was even faster than the computer! But, I'm sure about this, only a select few kids of this generation will recognize him, or maybe have heard about him. You will blame it all on the rarity of the comics, and the low-brainer content that is common in popular culture among kids these days. Or if not this, ask them if they have heard about these names, Birbal, Tenali Raman, Panchatantra, or even Vikram Betal. I bet you most of the people wouldn't have heard these names, maybe they won't be able to pronounce it properly, or may even laugh at such names. Chandamama is just the moon for them, while it was a treasure chest of stories and a whole new magical world for us. Remember, how we used to wait eagerly each month, waiting to get inside the magical land, and live every character's life there? And can you imagine, Chandamama stopped its circulation because its reader base had gradually decreased! Can you imagine it? I mean, one of the most widely read magazines from generations stopped its production due to shortage of readers! This clearly shows where we are heading towards!
So what are the possible reasons for the decline of the readers, and how do we rejuvenate them? So, books like many physical activities, started declining the day smartphones became a common household stuff, and internet became cheaper. Admit it or not, we all are addicted to smartphones and the web, in someway or other. We compare our 'likes', our 'reposts', our 'comments', our 'popularity' with others. Somewhere in the midst of acquiring all these virtual glories, we forgot the most important thing, the thing which makes us different from other animals: knowledge, and the ability to think and imagine. An Instagram story, or a random YouTube vlog, however bad it maybe, has become more important than reading a book or listening to a story. When was the last time you had listened to a story, or narrated a story to your younger siblings or your child? When was the last time you had spent more time with a book than with a phone? When was the last time you imagined something wonderful? Don't worry if you can't remember, it's not only your issue. That's the issue with almost everyone.
Let me give you a practical example of how smartphone decreases the reading habit, by using my friend, who himself agreed to be mentioned here, but of course will not be named; but let's call him X.(No points for guessing his name, focus on the story.) So X used to be this boy who used to devour books, and he could remember every minute details about the book. He took the least possible time to complete a book: I remember he used to stay up late in the night completing a book, and we would discuss that the next morning. All this was before he used to own a smartphone. So, when he cleared his entrances, his father gifted him a smartphone, and that was I would call, the end of reading books in one go or the decline of reading books as a whole. He had borrowed some books from me, which were 200-300 pages long, and given they were mystery thrillers, I had expected him to finish them in a single night. But, it's been a year since I lent him those books; he is in Ace League in PUBG, has completed many web series in a single night(some habits don't go away, but change forms, I guess), but the books still lie unopened. He himself admits that he doesn't have the same amount of interest on reading them, as he used to have earlier. When he brings himself together to read them, he asks himself this question, "Why?" And he admits this is the first time that such question has arisen in his mind. So, how did a boy, who could be the perfect example of the term 'nerd', given his craving for books, become like this? How did he suddenly find books uninteresting? It was not like he didn't watch series or movies before, or play games before; so why such a drastic decline in reading?
Imagine a world where books would be extinct; not only in its hard copy form, but altogether decline, and people would be left with some random video making apps, which feeds them with some very idiotic stuffs, which they consider as funny or entertaining. Imagine someone doing some random 'acting' or 'dance' for entertainment back when we were kids. Imagine someone, who hasn't read a single book come forward, proudly accept it, still keep on giving on motivational speeches, and ends up being a 'motivator' or worse, even a 'youth icon'. Imagine a world, where people keep on doing weird stuffs, and posting and sharing stuffs which do not have any meaning, or is damfool; and worse, everyone accepting those, laughing at those and basing their lives around this whole thing. Imagine someone detesting scholars and readers, (because calling them nerds was not offensive enough to stop their progress and offend them) and asking them what 'they have achieved by reading so much?' Wait, it's already happening in a large amount, isn't it? And it has become the new normal.
Maybe, we were always jealous of the people who read a lot, of writers, of people who can imagine beautifully, and were looking for a way to bring it down. And when, this 'new world' came up, where you don't necessarily need to read to attain respect, you can attain respect by imitating someone, by moving your hands and lipsynching, by posting your pictures, and by proudly accepting that we are the fools, and not taking inspiration from others, we finally found 'our place', somewhere where no one can criticize us(because it's our choice, apparently), where no one can call you a fool just because you are not well read, well aware, and you are proud to be lazy and ignorant. Maybe that's another reason, why we chose the leaders who can keep on assuring us that not being well versed is the new 'cool', and give us some low level things to comprehend and debate on. The whole focus has now shifted to people being jealous of others' likes, and followers, and not of the amount of things they have read; I mean, do you even notice the Bibliography page of a book that you read and try to find out the sources of the information that you get? We know some random guy hurling abuses at others and make him famous, but we do not recognize the famous authors, or famous characters. And thus, book has died.
They say, books and stories never die, just change from one form to another. But what if, an entire generation, who themselves produce books and stories, kill them? Yes, books are dying, and will be completely dead in a generation or the next. With people shifting to watching idiotic no brainer contents everytime, detesting books and knowledge, how can we expect books to flourish or even grow back? It's not like we should keep on reading everytime, mind needs entertainment too. So what can be done so that someone won't get distracted or addicted to idiotic things? Maybe a limit of use can be implemented to not get addicted even JIO and other companies have limit for their data's its not just for their benefit it's also for us to not get addicted to idiotic stuffs. You can't possibly put a limit on entertainment but you can control. So, let's try to do it.
People won't remember how much likes you have got, or how many 'followers' you have attained on social media; in the end, it all narrows down to your personality, how you are as a person; your originality. Opt for real recognition, instead of going for virtual recognition. What will one do with likes, if people don't remember who you really are. Reading, and pursuing knowledge should be encouraged, and not watching some dumb stuffs everytime, which won't take you anywhere. And smartphones are not a escape from handling your kid; that would be like drugging him for getting a good night's sleep. Instead, you can read out stories to him, tell him the magic of books. And give out books to kids, tell them stories, make them interested so that they end up opening up a book at the end of the day, and not an account in social media and watch idiotic things. And you won't get another chance like you are getting now, during the Quarantine, to build up or rejuvenate an old habit, to complete your readlist. Don't give in to those memes, you are built for acquiring knowledge, and reading books, pick up a book, and start reading immediately. And, to end this, we all live in the illusion of dark fakeness, which we need to come out of. Cheers.
The most celebrated children's authors of India, Ruskin Bond said this in an interview last year. Although he told this from the prospective of publishing becoming easier with the passing time, maybe he was indirectly aiming at the gradual decrease in the number of readers in the present kids. You don't believe me? Okay, try out this social experiment:
Remember him, right? Of course, who can forget the iconic Chacha Chaudhary from our childhood days, whose brain was even faster than the computer! But, I'm sure about this, only a select few kids of this generation will recognize him, or maybe have heard about him. You will blame it all on the rarity of the comics, and the low-brainer content that is common in popular culture among kids these days. Or if not this, ask them if they have heard about these names, Birbal, Tenali Raman, Panchatantra, or even Vikram Betal. I bet you most of the people wouldn't have heard these names, maybe they won't be able to pronounce it properly, or may even laugh at such names. Chandamama is just the moon for them, while it was a treasure chest of stories and a whole new magical world for us. Remember, how we used to wait eagerly each month, waiting to get inside the magical land, and live every character's life there? And can you imagine, Chandamama stopped its circulation because its reader base had gradually decreased! Can you imagine it? I mean, one of the most widely read magazines from generations stopped its production due to shortage of readers! This clearly shows where we are heading towards!
So what are the possible reasons for the decline of the readers, and how do we rejuvenate them? So, books like many physical activities, started declining the day smartphones became a common household stuff, and internet became cheaper. Admit it or not, we all are addicted to smartphones and the web, in someway or other. We compare our 'likes', our 'reposts', our 'comments', our 'popularity' with others. Somewhere in the midst of acquiring all these virtual glories, we forgot the most important thing, the thing which makes us different from other animals: knowledge, and the ability to think and imagine. An Instagram story, or a random YouTube vlog, however bad it maybe, has become more important than reading a book or listening to a story. When was the last time you had listened to a story, or narrated a story to your younger siblings or your child? When was the last time you had spent more time with a book than with a phone? When was the last time you imagined something wonderful? Don't worry if you can't remember, it's not only your issue. That's the issue with almost everyone.
Let me give you a practical example of how smartphone decreases the reading habit, by using my friend, who himself agreed to be mentioned here, but of course will not be named; but let's call him X.(No points for guessing his name, focus on the story.) So X used to be this boy who used to devour books, and he could remember every minute details about the book. He took the least possible time to complete a book: I remember he used to stay up late in the night completing a book, and we would discuss that the next morning. All this was before he used to own a smartphone. So, when he cleared his entrances, his father gifted him a smartphone, and that was I would call, the end of reading books in one go or the decline of reading books as a whole. He had borrowed some books from me, which were 200-300 pages long, and given they were mystery thrillers, I had expected him to finish them in a single night. But, it's been a year since I lent him those books; he is in Ace League in PUBG, has completed many web series in a single night(some habits don't go away, but change forms, I guess), but the books still lie unopened. He himself admits that he doesn't have the same amount of interest on reading them, as he used to have earlier. When he brings himself together to read them, he asks himself this question, "Why?" And he admits this is the first time that such question has arisen in his mind. So, how did a boy, who could be the perfect example of the term 'nerd', given his craving for books, become like this? How did he suddenly find books uninteresting? It was not like he didn't watch series or movies before, or play games before; so why such a drastic decline in reading?
Imagine a world where books would be extinct; not only in its hard copy form, but altogether decline, and people would be left with some random video making apps, which feeds them with some very idiotic stuffs, which they consider as funny or entertaining. Imagine someone doing some random 'acting' or 'dance' for entertainment back when we were kids. Imagine someone, who hasn't read a single book come forward, proudly accept it, still keep on giving on motivational speeches, and ends up being a 'motivator' or worse, even a 'youth icon'. Imagine a world, where people keep on doing weird stuffs, and posting and sharing stuffs which do not have any meaning, or is damfool; and worse, everyone accepting those, laughing at those and basing their lives around this whole thing. Imagine someone detesting scholars and readers, (because calling them nerds was not offensive enough to stop their progress and offend them) and asking them what 'they have achieved by reading so much?' Wait, it's already happening in a large amount, isn't it? And it has become the new normal.
Maybe, we were always jealous of the people who read a lot, of writers, of people who can imagine beautifully, and were looking for a way to bring it down. And when, this 'new world' came up, where you don't necessarily need to read to attain respect, you can attain respect by imitating someone, by moving your hands and lipsynching, by posting your pictures, and by proudly accepting that we are the fools, and not taking inspiration from others, we finally found 'our place', somewhere where no one can criticize us(because it's our choice, apparently), where no one can call you a fool just because you are not well read, well aware, and you are proud to be lazy and ignorant. Maybe that's another reason, why we chose the leaders who can keep on assuring us that not being well versed is the new 'cool', and give us some low level things to comprehend and debate on. The whole focus has now shifted to people being jealous of others' likes, and followers, and not of the amount of things they have read; I mean, do you even notice the Bibliography page of a book that you read and try to find out the sources of the information that you get? We know some random guy hurling abuses at others and make him famous, but we do not recognize the famous authors, or famous characters. And thus, book has died.
They say, books and stories never die, just change from one form to another. But what if, an entire generation, who themselves produce books and stories, kill them? Yes, books are dying, and will be completely dead in a generation or the next. With people shifting to watching idiotic no brainer contents everytime, detesting books and knowledge, how can we expect books to flourish or even grow back? It's not like we should keep on reading everytime, mind needs entertainment too. So what can be done so that someone won't get distracted or addicted to idiotic things? Maybe a limit of use can be implemented to not get addicted even JIO and other companies have limit for their data's its not just for their benefit it's also for us to not get addicted to idiotic stuffs. You can't possibly put a limit on entertainment but you can control. So, let's try to do it.
People won't remember how much likes you have got, or how many 'followers' you have attained on social media; in the end, it all narrows down to your personality, how you are as a person; your originality. Opt for real recognition, instead of going for virtual recognition. What will one do with likes, if people don't remember who you really are. Reading, and pursuing knowledge should be encouraged, and not watching some dumb stuffs everytime, which won't take you anywhere. And smartphones are not a escape from handling your kid; that would be like drugging him for getting a good night's sleep. Instead, you can read out stories to him, tell him the magic of books. And give out books to kids, tell them stories, make them interested so that they end up opening up a book at the end of the day, and not an account in social media and watch idiotic things. And you won't get another chance like you are getting now, during the Quarantine, to build up or rejuvenate an old habit, to complete your readlist. Don't give in to those memes, you are built for acquiring knowledge, and reading books, pick up a book, and start reading immediately. And, to end this, we all live in the illusion of dark fakeness, which we need to come out of. Cheers.
Beautiful one💓💓
ReplyDeleteBeautifully depicted with tons of nostalgia. I wish characters like Chacha Chaudary still lived till date
ReplyDeleteWow...this is one of the most beautiful things I've read on the recent times.. I've never been a prolific book reader but the causes and the facts about the decline of bookreading resonates with me.❤️🔥
ReplyDelete