Quanta Reads

Why is it that humans like to read? Just stare at little symbols on a piece of paper and enter a parallel world. A decade or two ago, this question might have had a different meaning but in 2025 we can’t help but see it in a different light. We are on the cusp of Generative AI revolution, out little corner of the universe completely digitized, santized and branded.

I feel like Millenials might have been the last generation where nobody had a choice but to experience a mindful childhood? Maybe I’m wrong but the childhood i remember was full of the outdoors and things we had to come up with to occupy our time. I know it must not be the same for every other person who grew up in the 90’s but let me share my experience.

My childhood wasn’t a fairytale but I think I made it so in many different ways. I was born in a quite traditional family living in the suburbs of Bahawalpur, a small but peaceful city bordering the Rohi desert. You cannot imagine the heat.

My parents had decided to move to the city which caused a lot of ire in our paternal grand parents hearts and my landowner grand father disinherited my father. Which meant, we lived on very limited resources for a very long time. Times were tough, my parents did not like each others company very much and we were largely left to our own devices.

The lack of this functional outside world meant that I had to create a substitute world of my own. in early 2000s, there wasn’t much else for a teenager to do except play outdoors and read books. I did both.

There wasn’t any particular rhyme or reason as to which genre i preferred or what kind of literature I wanted to consume. I was so starved that I voraciously devoured anything I could get my hands on. My most memorable time spent with books was when i lived in my maternal grandmothers house for a few years. The house was situated in the heart of Bahawalput city behind one of the busiest commercial roads. At night, me and my cousins would often sneak up to the roof and sit on the ledge facing the commercial areas. It used to be an other worldly feeling.

We would sit there for hours and just watch cars, buses and rickshaws passing by in the blessed cool of the night which descended like a soft veil from the sky after a blistering day in the sun. The close proximity to the desert meant that the days did not allow much wandering about in the main city but the nights we cherished very much.

Just around the corner of the street where we lived was a very small bookstand. I don’t remember the first time i visited that place but I must have been totally enchanted by what it offered. I don’t have many memories of spending on candies or toys but i do recall how most of my tiny stash of pocket money would always go into buying many of these books. They were nothing special, just short little story books about Tarzan, Umro Ayyar and many other such characters that were native to Pakistan. As I grew older, my attention shifted to Imran Series which was about a spy working for a ficticious agency in a ficticious country.

I got totally immersed in Imran’s many missions that took him to all sorts of remote parts of that fantasy world to solve the fantastical mysteries this world presented. His was a diabolical character. He was witty, funny and charming and he always had a sarcastic remark for every situation he found himself in. I remember his enduring affection for his co-agent Julia and his many friendships that colored his life. It was the first of many adventures i would find myself lost in those years. I think those adventures kept my sanity through many a difficult situations in my life that my developing brain was not yet ready to cope with.

My second most favorite spot in that respect in my small world was the school library. I was in Junior high at that time and my school had this tiny room filled with books that always drew me in. I would spend hours there getting introduced to Nancy Drew, famous five, Roald Dahl and Stephen King. The stories these pages told would be my favority part of growing up. I spent many nights reading well into the night using my tiny red metal flashlight that I loved very much.

There was this one evening when I believe the trajectory of my literature preferences and most importantly my life totally changed. I had an argument with my volatile mother and was in an awfully distraught state. There was this girl who came to Pakistan from Indian Kashmir to study medicine. My uncle was one of her professors and was hosting her at his place and would often bring her to visit us and other relatives so she wouldn’t feel homesick. She saw me wallowing in my misery and had a stern talk with me. She told me something that I’d never forget. She said, “Do you really think any one of them is really going to care that you’re in pain? Maybe they are the cause and they enjoy it. Have you considered that?” She could probably clearly see how there was a complete lack of relational affection in my family. She handed me a book named “The Fountainhead” and said “Read it, it will help you and you will certainly enjoy it.” And so I read it. It was about an Architect named Howard Roark. Although this book was a work of fiction, the story was more centered around principles and ideas. The author of this book is Ayn Rand, a Russian who moved to America and became a prolific author. You can see quite clearly that coming from a harsh authoritarian regime left quite a distate in her mouth for utilitarian principles.

Our protagonist Howard was a highly creative individual. He firmly believed in the idea of “Form follows function”. He studied in an architecture school and always pursued the design idea that a building should first and foremost focus on its purpose than fake adornments that served no purpose. I do not think he did not inherently liked the idea of any adornments at all, more so that if you are building a small window that lets in very little light and is over crowded with embellishments does not serve any purpose and therefore should not be added to the structure. Through out his life, he suffers because of this idea. Clients have their own reasons for wanting a certain building made and firms operate on profit. Roark did not care aboutany of those. He loved to build and for him the integrity of the building was more important than the whims or wishes of even the clients who wanted it made. In any case, this book really instilled in me the value of staying firm by your ideals and aspirations and to never let opposition, obstacles or even suffering deter you.

I will tell you the reason why this is supposed to be so very important. The thing is, when we compromise on these kind of principles it is highly likely that we would become materially successful. However, in the process we do compromise the integrity of our soul. We lose respect for our selves in our own eyes. This is where the narcissistic personality develops. Since you don’t respect yourself, you want to force everyone to respect you. Which is really quite a vicious circle.

In essence, this was the book that changed the trajectory of my life and introduced me to serious topics. I got really interested in Philosophy, Science and Psychology. I was always the one who had a ton of questions for teachers. Some adored it, others were highly irked by it. Mainly because they often did not have answers to my questions. What they failed to see though that when a student asks you a questions, it is not often the answer that is important but how you respond to a young person’s curiosity. It is what shapes them in their adult life. How these nuances were handled. We often just want a teacher to appreciate our curiosity and even if an answer does not exist we want to be assured that what we are asking is important and maybe someday the answer will be found.

The reason I have touched upon these topics is because when we get immersed in the world of books, ideas and creativity; even if our real circumstances are difficult or terrible we start to wear this sort of armour. Our minds are no longer occupied by the trivial distractions that the world tries to impose on us. Misery loves company, right? Once you get curious about Science, Art, Music… there is very little else that seems to matter in our lives. This becomes a sort of shield and a purpose.

If we are lucky enough to find ourselves in good company, books wise – these books lead us to very interesting places. We not only find ideas in them but also camaraderie in the characters. We learn to empathize with different forms of personalities and learn to deal with very interesting situations just because we read about them. Many people find their purpose in life by reading stories. Simply because there is just so much books tend to offer, when they are good.

So no matter what sort of books you like to read, it is just vitally important that you do. The human mind and human condition is a very complicated thing and sometimes these threads that we find ourselves stuck in can only be untangled by immersing ourselves in some other world.

Reading also allows one to improve their focus and mindfulness which is especially relevant in today’s digital age where every one demands 10-30 seconds of your time. When you read, you feel more inclined to create than to consume and that has a high potential of changing your life.