Rekindle the lost interest in books

Mandeep Kaur

The smell of the disinfectant, the rush of patients and the visits of doctors and nurses were routine in the hospital. When oral medication did not work, the intravenous route was adopted. The pain of the needle prick and the taste of the antibiotics were slowly sabotaging my positive frame of mind. Moreover, the fear of Covid-19 on the hospital premises also restricted my parents’ visit. Once a free bird, I was now caged, and it was getting tough to be at one place with the arm fitted with the cannula. WhatsApp was the only aid as it helped me in connecting with my parents and friends via video call.

A day passed, and I was becoming anxious. I was going through e-papers to know about the world. The passion for reading and writing keeps me busy as well as happy. I found the antidote to my sadness and started writing stories. But most got rejected, frustrating me even more. Again, sleep was my only good companion, but how much can one sleep! The negative attitude kept happiness at bay.

The message of the book delivered from Amazon flashed on my phone. I don’t know what compelled me to request my parents to bring that book for me in the hospital. I got the book and read half of it the same day. After three days, I showed recovery and was discharged. By that time, I finished the book and realised the power of words. In this historical fiction, The Book Thief, Liesel survived World War II. The reason was her passion for reading and writing, as on the day of the bombing, she was in the basement doing the same, and here I did the same thing to overcome my stress and fight the disease. This book is now adding charm to one of the shelves of my tiny library.

Like air and water is a necessity for survival, reading is necessary for the growth of our soul. The generation today is leaving the habit of reading despite having various options like e-books and PDFs. There was a time when books were considered precious gifts, but nowadays, things have changed, and fancy items have replaced books.

There is a need to rekindle the spark for reading as well as writing. The book challenge on social media, where readers post their favourite books, is a good initiative for recreating the aura of words. I also purchase many good books by following these posts. We, a bunch of like-minded people, have started the idea of a mobile library, where one can take a maximum of two books from others for three weeks, free of cost, but only if these are returned in the same good condition as earlier. The idea is working, and we are gaining many readers as many people want to read, but they don’t want to spend money. Seeing people read gives pleasure and the hope that one day books will again be taking their place on the shelves along with antique decorative items.