My Reading Journey

By 2016, my list of books had reached 10,000+ But the most interesting fact here is that, however natural this number may be to me, to most of the audience it is a huge delusional delusion-type thing. Finally decided to write a short story about it, to at least survive the initial bullying of people. In reality, my penchant for out-of-text reading started in primary school.

My mother (who was a freedom fighter of Sector 2 of the Liberation War) was a housewife in personal life but was always involved in various social service activities. Ma was a teacher in the adult education and human rights type of activities of two NGOs 'Grameen' and 'Prashika'. There was a big yard in front of our house at Mirpur-12. Sometimes the adult education session was held in the backyard or in the school room next to our house. Every 3-4 months there would be a pile of comic + story type books with pictures provided by NGOs in the house. Most probably my mother used to give them books according to the syllabus and discuss it. I was studying in primary school then. Childhood brain is always weak to cartoon images and stories and by applying that formula, this (poor maharaj) moth's movement to the light and in the next 2+ years my number of books read from that source increased to more than 2000. At first I used to write the name of the book but later due to trouble I used to write only the number.

Pran Chacha-Chowdhury, Phantom, Billu, Pinky etc. comics were my school-life middle name while studying in school. Being an introvert and arguing with everyone, my mother used to keep me at home (confined a lot). And thanks to books, staying at home was a kind of paradise for me. There were bags of comic books piled up on the table. After reading my own, I used to exchange with school-mates or neighborhood comics-readers. However, throughout my school life and some time in college I was involved in reading comics. Almost the whole college life after completing SSC, I finished Tintin, Asterix, Prof. Shongku, Marvel and DC Comics series (Bangla or English) whatever I got…! Number of Comic Books I have read is 2000+, at that time.

When I was in eighth grade in school, I was first introduced to the ‘Bissho Shahitta Kendro’, a gigantic mobile library. By auto-registration, biographical books of various (single) psychologists were given out once a week by the school. The day I got the book from 'Sahitya Kendra', I used to read the book sitting in school. And I was very excited and disappointed at the same time that after another 6 days I will get another book. Even if I wanted to, I could not exchange with anyone, because most of them did not finish the book before 3-4 days. Many people would leave the whole week and submit the book halfway through. Later one day a classmate named 'Rayhan' (rich man son type) took pity on me and gave me his book and said, "You should read my book from next time" and also told those who were close to him, "If you have finished reading or not, “please give him the book instead of just throwing it away at home”. Yessss, I got the planet in my hand…! Because, I started getting 4 books every week and exchange about 8-10 books a week. I used to finish all the books in no time with the fun of eating delicious dishes made by hand on Eid morning. The number of books I have read here in two years is 800+

I started my first tuition in class 10 and got 300 taka. With the first money I earned, I bought one basket egg at home and a (general) reader's card in the mobile library car of the 'Bissho Shahitto Kendra' which was stationed weekly in front of the journalist's residence area. 'General Membership' means, with this card, I can't buy big size and expensive books and also one book at a time(for a whole week). 3 more cards within next month. However, since I had a very good relationship with Nabi-Bhai, the driver of the mobile library, in the first month, he arranged for me to take thick books on a normal card. It should be noted that personally he was a non-publicist philanthropist and one of his common daily tasks was to do a good deed every day and often planted trees at public places at his own expense. Anyway, within 2-3 months I went from being a regular 6 card holder and being one of the talk-of-the-spots. Later, the old readers of the area who came to return the cards because they no longer read the books, I humbly requested them and began to increase the number of weekly books with their cards. The interesting thing is that wherever the mobile library stopped, the staff of the car in my name would always give a motivational welcome speech to the new members.?

My common routine was reading books in the morning and afternoon and I used to read 2-3 books a day. In other words, I used to read books with a target in mind. Among them, their were Science fiction, travel-based books, funny short-medium-large stories, Humayun's literature, etc., by famous and not-so-famous gurus, etc. But due to bad result in SSC, my parents thought that it was the only reason for my bad result, so book reading becomes extremely difficult for me sometimes.?

There are so many sad stories in my life about reading books. I was always the last boy in school. There was no exam in which I did not fail in some subject. That's why all the shackles of home schooling rules were worn on me. When my father would keep any home tutor in the house, he would point to me and say "This boy does not study, if he does not study, he will get ten strokes of the cane and if he can, will get two" In such a situation, when I started intensively reading the books of the ‘Bissho Shahitto Kendro’ from the eighth grade at home, a medieval oppression was imposed on me. When my father came home and saw the story book in my hand, he would start scolding me.?

I then began to adopt different approaches to reading books. For example, going out with a book after the call to prayer in the mosque. I used to sit in a corner of the mosque and read a book. Thus, most of the coaching and school time was spent on reading books. One day my father came home and saw me reading a book on the balcony and called me very gently. Hearing the type of call, I understood that there is a big problem today, because today he didn't say anything out loud. I went to the drawing room and saw a local Tablighi(pious) uncle sitting with my father. Then I gasped a little and said that I survived his beating today. Then my father asked me, "What book are you reading?" Noble?” When I was about to answer, my father said, "Do you know what Noble means?" "Noble means 'No-Bail' means you have no value in this book..." he began, showing an expression that I had heard the word Noble for the first time in my life. When I was about to give the book to my father, the tablighi uncle next to me took the book from my hand and said, "Hey son, what books are you reading?" You should read Deeni(religious) books. At this stage I could no longer remain silent, I answered, "Uncle, am I going to be evil by reading this book…? Although not a religious book, the purpose of this book is the same, mankind's well-being and if it is forbidden to read books other than religious books, then there is no need to read school textbooks." I have heard all my life that everyone punishes their children for not reading books, and in my case it is the opposite, even though they are not textbooks...! 2,500+ books read by me in 3 years in Vishwa-Sahitya Kendra mobile library.

During my college life, I became particularly inclined towards religion after spending 40 days (called 1-Chilla) in Tabligh Jamaat and being regular in Mahfil, Tafseer programs in various mosques etc. in the area and quite a bit of my reading of general line books naturally converted to Islamic type books. Then I joined a library in the area called 'Iqra-Islamic-Pathagar' where the library started its journey with Islamic historical novels. I read the translated books of all famous Islamic novels-writers of India-Pakistan-Bangladesh including 'Enayetullah Altamas', 'Naseem-Hijaji',' Shafiuddin-Sardar' from that library. And Once I myself got involved in the official and organizational work of this library and once the responsibility of book purchase fell on my shoulders. Generally, Islamic books are sold in pandals in open spaces in the Baitul Mukarram area. Now, however, an annual Islamic book fair is also announced on social media platforms, which did not happen earlier. I used to go there and buy books at a big discounted rate, starting from 50%. Everyone can guess the next story now. Yes, as a result of giving chickens under the supervision of foxes, I very carefully spend the entire amount allocated by the library on buying only Islamic-history and historical novels. I bought about 1400+ books with my hands alone and most of them are read by me. The number of books I have read here is 1900+.

In addition, there was a collection of Tafsir, Hadith books on various topics, such as the Prophet (pbuh) of children, social justice in Al-Qur'an, economy in Al-Qur'an, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) on environmental protection, etc. I finished reading two thirds of these books. Since, theoretical type books are not something to be read in one sitting like story books and it has to be studied slowly as needed, reading the entire book is never the case here. And my reading number from these theoretical and philosophical books is 700+.?

Separated from Iqra-Islamic-Library, I established a library named 'Amar-Ekushe Vrammoman Pathagar' on my own initiative. Anyone can get a book and read it for a week by becoming a lifetime member here for just 10 taka. The only condition for getting the next book was that I discussed with the reader the current (or last week's) book. If I saw that he/she had actually read the book, I would have given him/her another book. I had a good tuition income from college life. I used to buy books for a minimum of 4-5 thousand taka per month. I always carry a bag like a back pack with me. Because I used to try to buy a book as soon as I liked it somewhere. Being associated with various local Islamic movements, I had many positive nicknames, one of which was 'Jack', meaning 'Connector'. Section 11, 12, 10, 6, 7, 1, 2, that means, there was no section of Mirpur where I did not have contact with any circle. My collection was around 1200 books and the newly read books added up to 700+ all of which I read.?

Now let's talk about purely philosophical and metaphorical type books.

The categories of allegorical and metaphorical books were quite random. For example, There was no such thing as a selected subject, I mean, History, Islamic, Physics, Maths, Economics. Sometimes I started reading books on strange subjects like Archeology, Stats, Anthro, which is still continuing. For example, 'War-and-Peace', 'Das-Kapital', 'Gulista-Bosta', 'Mishkatul-Anwar', 'Mine-Camp', 'Brief-History-of-Time', 'The-Origin-of' -Species' i.e When the topic comes to mind, I start reading books on that topic. It should be noted that the study of these philosophical-type books is not the same as other books i.e. story books. That is, there is absolutely nothing to finish reading. These books are like university reference books. That is, I want to clear the air and give my own opinion or statement on the subject, so the theories, information and data obtained from these books would be helpful fellows. However, I have always followed such an organic way of studying books that this subject has always remained somewhat under wraps.?

But, keeping a special purpose in mind, I will discuss social movement and Islamic movement one by one with my 'reading-life', Insha'Allah. Because they complement each other.?

However, before one of the philosophical books is finished, three more have to be caught up, thus to talk about a particular topic, it is seen that 10-12 books are touched in a day. But these books are definitely not text books i.e. reading economics books doesn't mean classical economics and here you will have no choice but to get frustrated or angry if you ask me questions on classical economics. Because, all my subjective philosophical books were metaphoric-type. In which, instead of directly answering my questions, I was put in situations through which I could get answers. Here's the number of books I've read (in a word, countless(!)), because philosophical books tend to vibrate the neurons of the brain in a way that even the most disconnected people are sure to rewire. It was very difficult at first, because I am not a memorizer and it was no use if I didn't understand them line-by-line in time.?

So, I started jotting down notes and it later turned into coloring books. Books Read here 1300+.?