REPORT: AMMAR AHMED KHAN 

 KARACHI: The 5-day-long Karachi International Book Fair here at Expo-Centre that ends today, has once again successfully maintained its reputation of pulling the social media addicts away from screens (13^th time in as many years).

Emboldened by Karachiites’ overwhelming response in previous years, the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association has once again endeavored to organize the Kutub Mela this year. 

Since 2005 the Book Fair is gaining momentum reviving the fading penchant for literature in the Metropolis. Particularly, transforming the social-media buffs into aficionados of written words.

Minister of Information, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah while inaugurating the Fair hailed the efforts of the organizers.

It is pertinent to mention here that 13^th edition of the Fair, harboring 330 book stalls,  has been visited by students of hundreds of educational institutes, literati of the Port City and seen a record sale of books.

Hall 1 is where you go to find most books to read, ranging from medicine, psychology, sociology, psychology, archeology, religion, world affairs, fiction, non-fiction and children’s books. Hall 1 is likely the best point to start since anything that interests a person is bound to be located over there and at a decent price.

Hall 2 is an interesting area featuring books offered by the publishers from Iran, India, Turkey, Singapore, the UK and others. Personnel at Indian and Iranian stalls had also explained their study-systems and education policy apropos their children and their implementation.

Many stalls focused on religion promoting items like pens that read sections of the Holy Quran by means of sensors and digital equipment useful in understanding Holy Quran.

Hall 3 now comes as the most troublesome part of this event, by no means dull or boring, but troublesome. This hall promotes the owners such as Cambridge, Oxford and various publishers that have a decent distribution in the nation.

This hall is troublesome since the books here are all fresh – by fresh I mean first-hand books made of good quality material which translates to expensive.

Déjà Vu? When thousands of people are seen entering the Expo Centre the feeling is nostalgic… Trying to find the books of choice in a library jam packed with people so you can get the book issued, take it home and read it in the comfort of a quiet room.

In a world dominated with the internet, the first thing coming to mind is why am I reading this? Why not just look it up on the internet.

The problem with the internet is the amount of usage and the content present, no one denies the all-purpose fit provided by the internet.

The issue arises when we abandon the items that have made up our generations for centuries.

As Muslims we know that the Quran was READ and interpreted in various groups by various people.

As humans we see untold examples of how our culture evolved from cave drawings to writing down information or transmitting emotions via words.

So why are we disregarding books now, the answer is no one cares about them anymore.

As a child I remember getting the Harry Potter series when I was 5 and that kick started my love for books of the fiction category.

As I grew older I was introduced to the wonder of news, another mystery this may be for you is how the news is a wonder. If you have ever wondered why?

You see a title ‘woman killed by husband over petty dispute’ when at a young age like 8 or 9 and you begin to be guided as to the realities of life and why they are there.

So my question to the reader is simply this, no one denies your right to use the internet but are you willing to lose brain power and creativity that is provided by books and let your children suffer the same fate?