The other day while leafing through assorted books at a library, this writer was wondering about their fate fifty years later. How many of them will be able to cling to the shelves through the passage of time? Given the fact that books are being fast replaced by online editions across the world, fear over their existence in the present form has long been haunting book lovers.
Due to the country's overall backwardness, the aggression of online media outlets may take a longer time to be in place in Bangladesh. But it is inevitable. The exit of hand-composing and the robust entry of computer typing have taken place in a period of less than one decade. The same applies to the job of news people. The sight of pen and paper is fast becoming rarer in newspaper offices. The print media has gone digital.
As a universal rule, older objects and ideas have to make way for those newer. Thus sailing ships had to make space for modern vessels, horse-drawn carriages were replaced by motor vehicles; electric lights outshone the soft glow of lanterns, etc. The list is long, and being made longer without respite. Coming to political systems, today's democracy, and digressively socialism, had to pass through a lot of other systems. The same is true with the socio-economic systems. Bangladesh, too, is a part of this forward journey of the humankind. In the forty-four years after its independence, people in the country have embraced scores of new items to use them in their day-to-day life. They had no other options. In order to keep its relevance to the outside world alive, the nation could not think otherwise. Thus in the face of both loud and subtle resistance, the proponents of change have prevailed finally.
Poverty and other socio-economic impediments cannot for long be a cause of obstruction to things new. In the long history of mankind it has been proved time and again. Upon overcoming the initial jitters associated with the adoption of the new, man unerringly discovers that he is right in his decision. In a short period, he begins enjoying the fruits of change.
It is quite difficult to fully understand human psychology, especially when it comes to what one likes or dislikes. Man did not hesitate to greet electricity, but he dithered in the case for photography. The conservatives cried foul saying photography will banish painting from human civilisation. Likewise, invention of cinema at the fag end of the nineteenth century was dubbed an amazing achievement. The Lumiere brothers were seen as pioneers of a new era in the world of the arts. But when television was launched in the early twentieth century, it triggered disapproval of many aesthetes. They foresaw what they called the death of movies in the television box.
Putting premonitions and speculations to rest, all inventions have stayed strong. In fact, it's human nature to view something new warily. It occurs everywhere and in every community irrespective of socio-economic statuses. Man seems to have matured a lot since he landed on the moon. Major inventions in the last 25-30 years, thus, coalesced into the stream of modern life without a fuss. Starting from the breakthroughs in computer and electronic communication technologies to medical science, man has welcomed every invention heartily. In the fiesta of innovations, a Bangladesh village housewife using a mobile phone or young men and women engrossed in their laptops in a university corridor in Dhaka seem quite befitting.
shihabskr@ymail.com
In the brave, new world of inventions
Shihab Sarkar | Published: August 30, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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