Book lover Harun Ar Rashid: A lighthouse of time
Book lover Harun Ar Rashid, has been working on books for almost ten years. He is a banker by profession. But from head to toe he is a book-loving man. However, he not only reads books himself, but also encourages others to read books, giving entertainment to the young generation by delivering books to them. He is a book lover Harun Ar Rashid. We all know about the Polan Sarkar of Rajshahi who went door to door to people in remote villages and read books to them. Polan Sarkar is already dead. But Harun Ar Rashid seems to have shouldered his unfinished work. If you want to see his indomitable love for books, you have to go to Nawabganj near Dhaka. Although Harun Ar Rashid was born on August 10, 1983 in Gobaria village of Kuliarchar upazila of Kishoreganj.
He passed his master’s degree from a private university and is currently working at Grameen Bank in Nawabganj. He built the paradise of his book there. The little house is just wrapped in a book cover. Numerous books arranged by him. Just books and books around the room. This is so many books, these are just a hobby to just collect? In response to such a question, he said. ‘I have collected this book day after day with great difficulty by saving the daily market cost. These are not just for yourself. To spread the light of civilization among the people around.’ He does a lot of work with offline or digital media books. He has written reviews of hundreds of domestic and foreign books through various social media.
He tries to promote the book or spread the word about the book through reviews. The speed of his work does not stop only through digital. Going from house to house, he is delivering books to the people on his own initiative. At the end of the week, he is bringing old books with new ones. This great work of his did not stop even during the epidemic. He is delivering books to people of all classes and professions as much as possible following the rules of hygiene. This is like another runaway government. With the violence of YouTube, Facebook and other online social media, children and teenagers, young and old alike are addicted to the virtual world. In order to bring these people back to the world of books from the virtual world, books are being handed over to everyone irrespective of class or profession. He is constantly working to make the young society book-oriented. He is handing over books to drug addicted youth instead of drugs.
Harun Ar Rashid said, ‘I dream of a civilized society. With this goal in mind, we are building libraries in the disadvantaged areas of the country. We are building open libraries in different regions with the money given by the rich people of the society. I am also promoting the book with books in various salons or tea and coffee shops.'
Another identity of this book lover is that he also writes lines. Harun Ar Rashid said that after the release of a thriller written by him at the 2020 Ekushey Book Fair, he has received a lot of praise from the readers. And the book ‘Escaponer Tekka’, published by him during the epidemic, has already gained the reputation of a best seller.
He is also working on songs. When the time comes, he leaves the guitar and sings. Some of the songs that have been promoted online have already captured the hearts of the listeners.
