“A good book is the best of friends the same today and will be forever” (John Milton). It is so indeed. A book can be described as a gateway into the realm of imagination or into an abyss of science or for the matter of fact, a gateway to any topic. A child from infancy gets to learn from his family. Then, at the onset of childhood at around 3 years of age, he comes in touch with books (mostly the school ones). These books mark the commencement of education in the life of the child reading them or memorising them is very painstaking or boring for a child of that age which is transparently evident from the high-pitched/shrill cries of children protruding from houses when they are made to sit and study. But these two years or “classes” as they're called, i.e. pre nursery and nursery are crucial to shape a child's future as they carve out the capacity of a kid to sit down with the book and at least devour a line of it. When he is acclimatised to studying school books, he is made to dip into the ocean of literature, gradually through the submarine of story books. May the book be of any type, comic or frictional, the reader gets to experience the taste of literature and sieve out his/ her liking. This is when a child actually adopts a passion for story books. Day by day the child becomes a voracious reader.

I have been a close spectator of the journey of a kid with books. He had been living with his grandparents who had initiated his love for stories. His grandpa, a retired army man could be seen at almost any time with a book in hand. I got the intel from his guardians that he used to look up to his grandpa in awe and wonder about his love of books. Intrigued by his grandpa’s passion for books, he too, slowly developed a passionate liking for stories that would be told by his grandma. Inspecting his knowledge, when he was acquainted with reading school books, he stepped into the galaxy of story books. His parents had patronized his habit. The first ever book that he clutched in the books store was a thin comic called TINKLE. He used to be quite engrossed with the book. Upon completion, his earnest wish was to get another volume and gobble it up. The shop which supplied the books had a few to be read as they weren’t bestsellers. He used to read each and every volume thoroughly.

            Now this was the time the problem of book crises rose in front of his guardian. When the few volumes that were in the bookstore were perused by him, he craved for more. He had developed an immense proclivity for reading. Even though the father-child couple went to numerous libraries together, he was unable to find his book. Even the nearby libraries of different statures didn’t keep that type of books. Hence his liking for books subdued for a few months. Seeing this pitiable condition, his guardians offered him e-books downloaded from a legit source. When the device was handed over to him, to be sure that he isn’t misguided to the wrong path, his seniors put an un-decipherable & un-probable password on the internet. In spite of the feeling of getting prohibited from websites like YouTube and all, he was hesitant in using the device but gradually he accepted and Voila! He again resumed this journey through literature. 

            The retrospection of the event in the last five years sprouted a viable thought in my mind. It may be hilarious to hear, but what I perceived is that mobile addiction is the testimony of eroding quality of libraries. YES, and there is but much evidence to ascertain so.

            Libraries which were earlier storehouses of knowledge are now inflicted by the greed for monetary gains. On entering one might see a ton load of books, ranging from miniature to bulky. But, on keen inspection, it can be seen that they are only for teenagers and adults. Like the blue moon, only a few books could be perceived in unaccounted condition lying around. The reason behind this is chiefly because, most of the members of the library are adults, a few teenagers, and like an oasis in desert, children (almost none at all). As they profit former two, the latter is often neglected. Now let a question arise in your mind, can a child study what is taught in 12th standard? No, right. Attributing this do think if a child who is interested in short moral stories can grasp anything out of an adolescent’s book. Due to this many juvenile readers have set upon reading E-books from various sites. Though, this on one note is appreciable manifesting his interest in books. But there is a catch

                        That is this evil, which in computer science is called as a “Hyperlink”. What it does is basically open up another webpage from a pre-existing website. Let me throw some light on how this “Mephistopheles” actually is set to work. While the kid is reading &downloading, a seemingly harmless message pops up, for instance, a video on YouTube. Clicking on the hyperlink of the unwanted harmful site, he /she would be redirected to the world of e-entertainment and e-sports. This leads to the alteration of the modus operandi of the device user, thereby shifting from reading books to entering into the abyss of websites. This is common for each and every device user, wherein their finger urges to go elsewhere but their mind stresses on reading books. Uncontrollably they capitulate to their fingers thereby affecting the reason of attraction towards their phones.

Everything has a distinct cause behind it. In this case, one of the causes is often attributed to a “deficit of patient”. Herein, what is observed is that enjoyment from the book can only be obtained if the reader is persistent in reading the book. Only then, he will understand the book more deeply. But due to the inclusion of mobile phones in one's life, kids are now very impatient and got attracted to things giving immediate response. Hence they thrive on games, which provide spontaneous replies on touch. But it should be inculcated in a child’s mind that all “Booyah!”, “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!” stuff is all temporary. Although I know the least of these things, still, it is in my knowledge that one, after playing a match never stops to play another and all the happiness of winning gets buried under the lamentation of losing one. Whereas, reading a fact or joke from a book can be remembered throughout one's life.

                        This should be understood that it is the depriving assistance of books that makes a child mobile addict (nomophobic). He wasn’t born to be one, was he? But still, society calls him/her by this tag of disrespect (mobile addict). Mind you, readers, I ain’t trying to express that mobile for such misuse is good for them. Rather I am trying to prioritize the fact that society, in pursuit of making the country “mobile independent”, should establish facilities/faculties where there would be an abundance of books for kids as that would result in increasing affection for books rather than phones. Also to set an example before the kids one should “Practice what he preaches” i.e. he/she should also show resistance towards phone addiction. Only the kid would step on their footprints in becoming mobile independent. Lastly if one has to offer e-books to their progeny, a un-decodable password should be installed so that they can’t access any other website without the consent of their parents.

                        Reaching the end, emphasis must be given to investing in books rather than on electronic gizmo, because the former would help strengthen one’s vocabulary as well as his / her domain of knowledge. Though we can’t overlook the usage of phones other than communication and how they help in studies (through websites like Google & Wikipedia) and relaxation (through e-sports like Genshin Impact, etc), nevertheless it is really so, as stated by famous John Milton—“A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured upon purpose to a life beyond life”