Brilliance of 13-year old boy’s ‘Statesmen’ now in book stores
KARACHI, Nov 20 (APP):A nation seeks to find some boosters when they are in a state of despair. When the media is pre-occupied with sensation and mass hysteria, confusion, and disinformation, there to find such news that a 13-year-old boy, Syed Muhammad Saleh, hailing from Karachi, has compiled a book, which is about 196 countries across the world and their relevant key features, is a moment for a respite in this politically-charged environment.
Before getting into the distinctive features of the book, let us take a minute to realize how important and commendable step Saleh has taken, at a time when book reading is regarded as a herculean task, leave alone authoring it. When a teenager is expected to be indulged in squandering his/her time on social media and all the related negative aspects of it, Saleh was brave enough to realize that the precious time, that he had at his disposal, could be utilized for something productive.
This does not mean to demean or play down the extra-curricular activities in which a young blood ought to participate, however, sporting activities make into the headlines, but does authoring a book can be in the spotlight? This may answer our priorities and a line of action we have taken as a nation anticipating what the future would be like.
The book titled “Statesmen” is a compilation of invaluable insights about the geographies, population and some other useful information that may help historians, researchers and journalists to take as a prelude to initiate any thorough research of countries which they want to discover and dissect their various facets.
Sharing details of his struggle, Saleh said that since the outbreak of Covid-19, he took responsibility over himself to do a research-based work on the countries and did not rely on just scattered information on the internet, which many times lacked veracity.
He said that he checked from multiple sources before incorporating it into his final draft. He went on to add that the book has 196 pages attributed each to a single country, therefore a reader would remain not distracted or feel less involved while going through the pages.
Meanwhile, his father Dr. Syed Shujat Husain, who is a senior professor at Jinnah University, Karachi, apprised that Saleh was keen enough to grasp of the opportunity lying before him. He shared that following his online classes during the Covid-19 pandemic, he used to take out two to three hours for doing the research work. He said that as the days passed by, the passion to complete the task grew stronger and his son started spending seven to eight hours on daily basis in a bid to complete the task.
The book was inaugurated on 6th November at Jinnah University and since then available at the nearest book stores. In the inauguration ceremony, reputable dignitaries, including former government officials, ambassadors and figures from academia joined in to applaud and encourage Saleh’s work.
A jubilant father, Dr. Syed Shujat Husain held that a time when book reading is “fading” and is considered old-fashioned, Saleh’s endeavor and attempt to make the best utility of available time was something that would make him happy and a proud father.
Dr. Syed Shujat Husain’s role as a father when he looked inside his son’s credentials and converted it into a reality, drawing appreciation from like-minded, knowledge-loving people is a reminder to all of us that support and backing come from home. Parents are just the needed strength that kids look into to find the path lying ahead.
If he (Saleh) would have been discouraged at the first go; if his father had displayed the approach of ‘carrot and stick’ policy; and was rather advised to do something else, here we were without a book and lost into the same routine news items depicting our sad state of affairs.
