HEART TO HEART
They say true friends never truly leave. They remain with us, silently seated beside us. Even in their quiet, they offer deep comfort.
They expect nothing, yet they give abundantly.
And from time to time, all they seek is a small offering: a little of your attention.
Since the dawn of civilisation, humans have relied on friends to survive and to stay sane. But what if I told you the truest friend, the one who stirs your thoughts and quietly plants seeds of awareness, is the one we’ve most tragically abandoned?
That friend, scattered across dusty shelves and weeping silently on forgotten sidewalks, is the book. Once, they stayed with us through day and night. Now, in their absence, the noise of the world blares uncontrollably.
Today, people appear soulless, like hollow trunks walking without meaning. Brains seem vacant, behaviour mechanical, nearly animalistic.
Nations that made books their companions now soar with progress.
And then there’s Pakistan, where people are too ‘busy’ to read books but always free for meaningless scrolls on social media.
This fake, addicting media floods our minds with fear, gossip and negativity.
When mothers distance themselves from books, what chance do children have? Their early years are full of wonder, yes, but also filled with invisible wounds.
And it is from those wounds that future criminals are born. Crime thrives where ignorance rules.
When immorality is normalised, how can any nation hope to govern itself?
Let that sit with you for a moment.
We are treated like children. From an early age, we’re told that books are hard, and that lie seeps into our subconscious, shaping our attitudes for life.
But books don’t speak the way social media does.
They don’t scream; they whisper.
They make you question, and that’s why they’re dangerous to ignorance.
Books are antibiotics for the mind. They purify thoughts, disinfect negativity and bring clarity.
Just consider this one figure: over 70 per cent of Pakistanis never touch a book.
They think books are only for classrooms.
Worse still, the average Pakistani spends just 70 rupees a year on books yet has no issue spending 2,000 rupees per month on mobile data for TikTok and Instagram.
We dismiss a 500-rupee book as too expensive but waste hours daily on nonsense.
A nation’s strength lies in its thinking.
And when that thinking is shaped by stupidity, by reels, dances and celebrity gossip, how can such a society ever evolve?
Books change how you think.
That’s their job.
And thinking - true, independent thinking, -is what built this world.
What should you read?
I’ll let Maxim Gorky answer that:
“Good books are not those that feed your hunger, but those that make you even hungrier... to understand life.”
If you ever hoped for an inner revolution, books are the only place to begin.
And once you commit, give it just a few months.
The change will come.
You’ll wonder how you lived without it.
Soon, you’ll have your own small library comprising perhaps just 20 or 30 books.
A year later, you will look back and ask yourself, why did I wait so long? In three years, you’ll know how to challenge your own thoughts.
You’ll learn how to ask uncomfortable, necessary questions — about yourself, about society, maybe even about me. And that world, the world of books, will open its doors to you.
It will smell strange at first, but then the scent will grow on you: quietly, tenderly. And one day, long after you’re gone, perhaps that same scent will follow you into the next world.
The scent of books.