BHARATI PAWASKAR
People’s attention span is getting shorter and shorter and whatever one has to express needs to be done in a minute or two. On Instagram it is one minute and on television debates it is just 30 seconds. Instant communication is the in thing and as people do not have time for bedtime stories, whatever has to be told needs to be told in just few sentences and quickly.
Celebrating Goa’s unique literary heritage, The Dogears Bookshop had organised a get-together for readers and writers at Ravindra Bhavan Margao where eminent Goan writers, readers and book lovers had assimilated. In his keynote address Harsh Mander, author and director of the Centre for Equity Studies spoke on the growing need of telling stories in brief as the attention span of people is getting shorter and shorter. “It is the time of Narcissism of selfie. One has to take either this side of that in just one word - yes or no,” he said.
Pointing out to our rich tradition of oral transmissions where stories were carried out in the form of memory, Mander, while delivering the keynote address, stated, “A book can be carried in the head and heart, depending upon the impact it has on the psyche of the reader. India has had a rich tradition of oral transmission of knowledge and much of it is still carried forward. Books have an equal role and status in knowledge transmission. How many of us can deny that the smell of freshly published book does not attract us?”
Having said that Mander, an accomplished author who has 23 books to his credit, asked, “Is there a future for books? What do our times signify? The entire world is experiencing similar kind of turmoil and in these difficult times, do we have time to read books? How are we responding to the times that we live? Mander’s questions leave a question mark on whether books are our best companions or not and if today’s parents and kids have time for bedtime stories on morals and ethics.
Mander, who works with survivors of mass violence and hunger, as well as homeless persons and street children, shared his own reason for writing books. “I write books because I want to share the stories that I come across, of people whom otherwise no one would know of. The levels of -n-equality in our country are unimaginable. There is hunger on one side and a billion dollar wedding that spends Rs 700 crore on the other. Such imbalance and disparity gives rise to injustice. It gives birth to crime and that’s where we find stories. If these stories are not told, nobody would know that such a world exists. That’s the reason I write,” said Mander, director of the Centre for Equity Studies.
Pointing out the naked truth of our society where accident of one’s birth in a particular caste or gender determines the life, Mander asks, whether books and writings have meanings in these times. The old fashioned long form reflective writings and readings - do they have a future? Mentioning that associated with multiple tasks and responsibilities, he himself has to struggle to find time to write, Mander revealed that he works with street children, teaches, speaks and works on policies. Asking himself this question - ‘why and how do I write’, Mander points to three reasons. “Firstly, I want to tell stories about real people whom you would not know otherwise. This I do for empathy building. Nurturing empathy is important. It is the ability to feel the pain of another person. Firstly it is an act of imagination. One has to understand the life of another person. These are stories that are extremely difficulty to digest.”
The second reason why Mander writes is to raise moral questions and third is for solidarity and speaking against injustice. “Writing is an act of conscience. It is the imagination of a possibility of a different world which is kinder, fairer and gives hope. It is the imagination of a society where no injustice happens,” shares Mander who is hopeful that reading will endure and writing will be cherished.
