Author Asma Hassan advises youngsters to read books

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi 

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Speaking at the seminar ‘Books are forever’ which was jointly organized by Department of Library & Information Science (DLIS) of University of Karachi, Rotary Club of Karachi Darakhshan (RCKD) and National Library Association (NLA) at the University’s Faculty of Arts Auditorium on February 18, Asma Hassan, the author of famed book Mayar-e-Zindagi, advised the young generation to devote more time in reading general books besides their textbooks. Following is the text of her speech: 

“Our relationship with books can never be broken whether they are in conventional printed form or in the digital format. It has been observed that the young generation of today spends hours after hours every day using social platforms like Facebook, Youtube and Instagram but it finds reading just a couple of pages of a book very challenging because they consider books as boring whereas Tik Tok videos are focus of their attention.” 

“Personally I am not a critic of these activities but I only wish that social media should purely be considered as a source of entertainment so that maximum time could be utilized in doing productive work.” 

“The practice of reading non-textbooks or reference books seems on the verge of extinction. We only try to read that much which could let us pass the exam or let us secure the required marks to appear on merit list. I firmly believe that book reading is essential for mental development. It enables us to think from different angles and our thought-process improves.” 

“Now it’s the time that we should get rid of the illusion that life could be led without reading books. If we don’t engage into reading books and we don’t strengthen our relationship with books we will be rolled over in the time to come.” 

“We need to promote book reading culture for the sake of our society. We need to do it for making progress in life. The thinking of people would change and their lives will become more purposeful if they could read more books. We should mobilize all our resources to guide our youngsters in particular to let them adopt the right course for a better future for themselves.” 

“We, the writers, also have a responsibility to shoulder. We need to produce the kind of stuff which appeals to the young guns, motivates them and urges them to do better. We, through our write-ups, have to give them solutions to the many probing questions they have in their minds.” 

“I am fully convinced that when compelling content will be produced and motivational books will be published in good numbers, more and more youngsters will start reading such books and they will learn a lot to bring about improvement in their life.” 

“My request to the students of the Library & Information Science department is to read more and more books themselves to be able to serve organizations much more effectively as professional librarians in their careers.” 

“The University of Karachi is a great institution and its students are extremely fortunate to be blessed with such a proactive faculty at their department which augurs well for the future. The National Library Association (NLA) has been doing a fabulous job and they have made their presence felt in a short span of time. They appear on course of achieving higher glories. Rotary International, we all know, is a leading international voluntary service organization with its chapters serving the humanity all over the world, including Pakistan.”

“It’s real very heartening to find three wonderful entities joining hands for the promotion of book culture in the country. Joint efforts are indeed more likely to yield results as the resources are pooled and bigger events become possible. I congratulate all of you for organizing such a successful and memorable seminar. Long Live Books, Long Live Pakistan!”