I Saw Some ‘Aliens’ While Visiting a Bookshop in the City

My friend Shams was searching for a book named The Anarchy by William Dalrymple. He visited my office, waited till my work ends, and then suggested me to go with him to a bookshop. For the record, I live in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and worked at The Daily Star, the country's leading English Daily.

After the office, we went to a famous bookshop named Bengal Books at Bengal Shilpaloy. It's a multi-storied building with a bookshop, an exhibition hall, and a few offices. The ground floor is solely dedicated to books. There is a nice lawn in front where you can sit with a book and connect yourself to the knowledge world while having a cup of coffee. Some old trees are also standing around to make the environment relatively serene.

On the way, we stopped for having some snacks at a restaurant. Then, when the sun dived into the darkness, we reached the bookshop.

As the pandemic is still young, I thought I would find the bookshop nearly empty. But what I saw entering its premises shocked me to the core.

What did I see there?

I saw the lawn filled with aliens. Yes, you heard me right. More than fifty aliens invaded all the tables outside. They were gossiping, laughing, and shouting. But most of them were immersed in the rectangle devices in their hands. They were scrolling continually, bending their necks. It seemed like they were searching for some hidden treasures.

It surprised me that no one had any books in their hands. They had either a rectangular device or a coffee cup, and none of them had a mask on their faces.

Taken by the situation, I told my friend to quickly enter the book section to find his desirable book and then leave the place. But we had no clue what we were going to encounter next.

When we entered the book section, we found it nearly empty. No one was there to buy or read books. Instead, we found some aliens taking selfies blocking the main walkway. They were pretending to read books while their alien-friend taking their photos with a rectangular device. Some alien-girls were trying to get the alien-style pose. Maybe that would help them gain more followers.

I told my friend - this is not a bookshop but a place to see aliens from some stupid planets. They cannot be human, although they look the same.

Why did the people turn into aliens?

The Internet has killed people's sanity. To be more specific, I should say social media robbed our brains, turning us into some alien species who only care about the online world and its gimmick.

To meet new people, we search on Facebook - to meet love, we install Tinder - to follow someone, we go to Instagram - to share our thoughts, we text on Whatsapp - to showcase our stupidity, we post videos on TikTok, and so on.

Social media apps surround our lives, robbing our attention. Getting trapped into a fake virtual world, we forget the real one.

We forget to find knowledge in books. And the bookshop becomes the place to exhibit our stupid-love for the rectangular screens we carry everywhere. We take selfies with books and then put them back on the shelf. In the process, we turn into aliens forsaking our human self.

Be smart human beings, not aliens

Smart people don't care about their screen-image because they know what matters is the mind and rationality.

They know that mindset matters, not the handset; knowledge matters, not the Instagram followers; mental peace matters, not the bank balance.

The business world associate success with money, fame, and looks. But this is the ultimate wrong idea of success. They invented this to make people buy things. And no doubt, they are doing great as they continuously make fools of ourselves and put money on their pockets robbing our life. They developed a more-mindset in all of us. Now we want more money to buy more products, fame, and good looks.

We are so stupid that we always need other's approval to satisfy our thirst. From where we get other's consent quickly? Here comes the role of social media apps, the ultimate destroyer of human minds.

Smart people consciously use social media apps, control their choices, search for new insights, know what they are doing. On the contrary, aliens hardly know anything as they blindly follow the trend.

Summary

Search for new knowledge, read books, get connected to other's thoughts. And of course, don't be an alien in any bookshop anywhere in the world.

Allow knowledge to enlighten your mind.

Have a wonderful life!

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* The story was originally published on Medium (link)