Books are not made of paper; they are made of time, dreams, tears, and courage of thousands of people who lived before us. When you hold a book, you are not holding just 200 pages but 200 lives.
In today's world, everything is fast. Reels are 10 seconds, news is in headlines, friendship is in likes. But a book teaches you to slow down. It says, "Sit. Breathe. I will take you somewhere, but you have to walk with me."
A Book Never Leaves You
A phone will betray you when its battery dies. People will betray you when their time changes but a book never betrays you. You can keep it closed for 10 years, open it on the 11th year, and it will start from the exact same line where you left it, with the same love.
When you are sad at 2 AM, no friend will pick up your call but a book will. When you are alone in a new city, with no one to talk to, a book becomes your roommate, your family, your home.
It never judges. If you are poor, rich, dark, fair, topper, failure - the book talks to everyone in the same language.
The Book Sees You
In school, teachers taught us to read books. But no one taught us that books also read us.
A 10-year-old reads Harry Potter and sees magic.
A 20-year-old reads the same Harry Potter and sees friendship.
A 40-year-old reads the same book and sees sacrifice.
The book never changed. You changed. That is the miracle. A book is a mirror. You don't see the book, you see yourself inside it.
One Book Can Save a Life
We have all heard of doctors saving lives, but books also save lives. How many people who wanted to quit life, read one line - this too shall pass - and decided to live one more day?
How many lonely children found courage in comics? How many broken hearts found healing in poetry? How many poor boys found a new world because someone gave them a free old book?
A book is the cheapest ticket to travel the world. With Rs. 100, you can go to the ocean with a fisherman, to space with an astronaut, to a war with a soldier, and come back home for dinner.
Why We Are Losing Books
Today, we have information but not knowledge. We have data but not wisdom. We scroll 1000 posts a day, but we can't finish 10 pages of a book.
We say we have no time. But the truth is, we have no patience. A book demands patience. It doesn't give you the climax in the first 5 seconds. It builds you.
If you lose the habit of reading, you lose the habit of thinking deeply. And a society that cannot think deeply can be easily controlled.
My First Book
I still remember my first book. It was not costly. It's cover was torn. The pages were yellow. It was given to me by my school library teacher.
I didn't like it on day one. But on day three, I finished it at 1 AM under a small torch light because my home lights were off. I cried that night; not because the story was sad, but because I realized for the first time, someone who lived 100 years ago, wrote something that touched my heart today. That is immortality.
Since then, books became my addiction.
The Future of Books
Some people say, "Books will die, everything will be on mobile." Books will never die. The form may change - from palm leaves to paper to Kindle - but the soul will never die because humans will always need stories. We need stories to understand our own pain, to feel less lonely in this big universe.
Even after 1000 years, a mother will still read a storybook to her child to make him sleep. That is the power of a book.
Conclusion
So today, open a book. Any book. It can be a 10-page small story, a Bhagavad Gita, Qaran, Bible, a science book, or a comic.
Don't read the book to complete it. Read it to meet yourself because in the end, we will not remember how many likes we got, but we will remember that one book that changed us.
And if you have not found that one book yet, keep searching. Your book is searching for you too!
Apeksha R. Tandel
