P. A. Chacko
This day is dedicated to honour the birth/death anniversary of well known authors like Cervantes, Maurice Druon, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Haldor Kiljan Laxness, Manuel Mejía Vallejo, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and William Shakespeare.
An original book is the script of the soul power of the author. It can be his/her personal experience, soul searching issues affecting humanity, pearls of wisdom, instruction, information, mediation or contemplation. It can be a critique of or mirror to society or an inspiration to enjoy the crimson dash of the evening sky.
Someone writes. I steal it and claim it as my own. That is called plagiarism. An act without conscience.
Reading books is getting out of fashion today. The Whatsapp university is there to get us glued to information ranging from the technique to slice onions to how best you can do a neat bowel evacuation exercise.
Reading and writing habits are now relegated to the backburner and we let soulless Artificial Intelligence (AI) to gatecrash into our lives to be in the driving seat.
Educators have a great role in instilling into children’s minds a taste for reading good books and writing simple but creative things. Even loud reading alone or in groups will be helpful.
Libraries remain dusty and unused. Shakespeare, Bacon, Mary Ward, John Buniyan, Cervantes, Jane Austen, Wordsworth, Pablo Neruda, Paulo Coelho or the likes of them are getting confined to dusty corners.
We learn cheap wisdom from the modern messaging industry. We read little, we write little. We join the merry go around.