Science Vs sentiments

 

Last week, I was bombarded with gifts by my uncle who came from abroad. One of the generous gifts included a brand new eBook, I had long admired but never owned.



I was too startled to react at that moment as novels were my passion and it had thousands of them. 



Then it struck me what my cousin meant when she had told me a few weeks ago that I was about to own a huge collection of my favourite thing.



She was true to some extent as I love books, but little did she know what precisely was I fond of. 



Reading a novel is another thing but the tangibility and flipping of the pages and the new book’s smell give an out of the world feeling to me. This particular aspect makes books my best friend, of course, after the contents.



When you read a book holding it for hours yet making sure that the pages remain impeccable brings about an emotional attachment.



There is no such thing with an eBook. They are basically gadgets that let you pass your time without sitting idle. 



They are “perfect” whereas “nature likes disorderness” (according to my physics teacher).



Initially, it was thrilling -- reading novels, one after another on the eBook. But deep within, I knew something was missing. 



The eBook had various features. For instance it had games like chess and Sudoku that broke my flow of reading. 



Earlier I used to jot down the phrases which appealed me, but this gadget had a system which took notes automatically. 



This baffled me. I felt useless as all the work was being done by the machine itself. 



All I had to do was to read the contents of the novel.



This very experience made me realise that technology was not just a boon for mankind.



 For people like me, science is a monster which eats up our sentiments. 



(Published in The Gulf Today on April 9, 2016)