37-year-old Bangladeshi social activist Harun Ar Rashid, who was also known as the ‘Walking Library’ or Alor Ferrywala (a peddler of light). Born was on August 10, 1983 in Gobaria village of Kuliarchar upazila of Kishoreganj. Graduated from a private university. He is currently working at Grameen Bank in Nawabganj, Dhaka. Although a banker by profession, he is a book-loving man from head to toe. He was a self-made man with a passion for learning.
Harun Ar Rashid working day and night to enlighten the society in the light of books. For the last one decade, he has been delivering books by ferry to people’s homes. Delivering books from village to village, city to port and wherever you can. He continues to run with the light of civilization in the same rhythm everywhere including schools-colleges, mosques-temples, roads-ghats, hats-bazaars in Bangladesh.
There is no end to this man’s madness with books. As he used to find his childhood in the scent of the pages of a book, now he can find his lost childhood in the pages of a book. There seems to be no end to his work on offline or digital media books. He has created a storm online by writing reviews of hundreds of local and foreign books through various social media. There is no end to the thoughts of this enterprising man in promoting books or trying to spread the word about books.
The speed of his work does not stop only through digital, the work of this book-loving man seems to be even better offline. Going from house to house, going from house to house in the city, 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. His great work did not stop even during the epidemic. At the risk of his life, he has delivered the book to the people of all walks of life under the hygienic rules. With the advent of YouTube, Facebook and other online social media, children and teenagers, young and old, young and old, Banita is 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. Although it may seem unbelievable at first glance, in reality it is the true story of a book lover who is busy spreading the word about books in a fancy way. He is constantly working to make the young society book-oriented.
He is handing over books to drug addicted youth instead of drugs. Bringing these young people involved in drugs back to the book world in an incredible way. In the last ten years, he has brought more than two hundred young people back from the world of drugs to the world of books. The boy who used to pick up drugs in the middle of the night, the boy who used to spend sleepless nights in the frenzy of drugs, is getting books in his hands today.
The drug addicted boy spent the night and is now addicted to books. By reducing online addiction to drugs, he is bringing a large part of the youth back to the realm of books.
This book-loving man, who is constantly running, is working day after day, tirelessly, with the torch of civilization in his hand. He dreams of a civilized society. With this goal in mind, he is also making an outstanding contribution in building libraries in disadvantaged remote areas of the country. Open libraries are being set up in more than one region with the money given by the rich people of the society. He is also promoting the book in various saloons and tea-coffee shops.
This book lover has one more identity. Not only is he a great reader, he is also a writer. Not only is he promoting books, he has also written a great original thriller at the last book fair. The book again received a great response from the readers. Another of his new books, ‘Eskaponer Tekka’ has already topped Rokmari’s bestseller list. There are several more books waiting to be published. Asked about his feelings about this, he said, “I am happy to be able to work with books according to my dream and this book-loving man wants to work with books all his life.” In this way, he wants to bring this book-averse generation back to the pages of the book, to the scent of the book.
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