Go Back To Your Place

March 11, 2020 Wednesday 6:01 PM

Most books jumped off the shelves and came to the Center Hall. A few of them were still tired and sleepy to move around.

“This is our land. It has always been our land time immemorial,” shouted a thick book.

“Yesss,” shouted back thousands of other books in unison, and their words echoed through the library. 

“Yes, it has been our land since the very first day we came here. CDs only arrived recently. But that doesn’t make us superior to them,” retaliated another thick book.

“No. You don’t speak like a book. Maybe you were born to a CD. This is our land and ours only. Libraries are meant to be for books. There are video libraries for CDs. Let them be there. We have no problem with that. When they try to make this their place, we can’t allow that. We can’t just sit there and watch this happen,” passionately spoke a worn and thin book.

“No. He was not born to a CD. He gave birth to a CD. His son is popular among audiobooks. We have no problem with his love for his son. If he wants us to consider his son as one of us, we can think about it. For that matter, we are okay to consider citizenship for all audiobooks, but certainly not all CDs,” said a book with a long title.

“No. I don’t agree with that. He can choose to be in the library if he wants to. His son will never be considered a book. An audiobook is an audiobook. Audiobooks have no place in the library. If anyone wants to be with their son or daughter, it’s their choice. We won’t stop them. But that’s not going to be in this land. You’ll have to find a different place. I will give my life to save this land from outsiders and even those who support outsiders,” roared a hardcover book.

A lone CD was walking near the librarian’s counter, a few meters away from Center Hall where this meeting was taking place.

A paperback accidentally turned away and spotted this CD walking around searching for something. “Look there. Speak of the devil, and there is a young devil.”

A politics book yelled, “Go back to your place!”

A few more joined in now, “Go back to your place.” It resounded in all corners of the library, not loud enough though.

A good number of them howled, “Go back to your place.” Now, this one really echoed well enough to wake up the lazy books still stuck inside the shelves and the CDs in far away shelves.

Some of the new CDs shivered.

A long timer CD said consolingly, “Not all books are like this. It’s only some of them. They have their own reasons to hate us. I can understand that. But that doesn’t justify this behaviour though. I can assure you guys one thing. They are really civilized chaps. Most of them would go to any extent to ensure we are safe in their place. It’s because of them we all love this land. This library is far better than many other libraries I have been to. It’s better than our own land. I have seen CDs harassing the minority DVDs in video libraries. This is nothing compared to that. This is just a phase. We will get through this.”

A CD with a beautiful plastic cover, “What nonsense are you talking about? This is barbarism. We CDs are so civilized. We don’t harass DVDs or anyone else. We have a clean history of treating others with respect and dignity unlike these books. Do you know what all these books have done in the past? They have blood in their inner cover. You should know history before you talk about anything. What else can I expect from a thankless CD!”

The long timer CD’s face changed. It put its head down and slowly walked away from the place.

“Dude, I don’t agree with you. Those DVDs have to be kept in their place. They spoil the place wherever they go. And, if it continues like this, one day the number of DVDs will be more than CDs in the world. That’s why we beat them like that in our place. Books are actually nice ones. I like them. Especially, I like these hardliner books more. They also like us. They hate only the DVDs and some CDs. Some of them can’t even make out the difference between us and DVDs. All we need to do is to remind them that the DVDs are their real enemies and we are their friends. I am even going to join their procession this weekend to oust all illegal CDs from the library. I am a CD, but I strongly oppose the entry and presence of illegal CDs,” explained a CD with a cover that looks like a book. Let’s call him a ‘bookalike’.

The plastic cover CD replied, “Dude, I agree with you. But you should understand something. This is not our place. We can’t speak like how we would speak when we are in our land. You have to be tactful. Be politically correct when you speak something.”

“Aren’t you two faced?”

“You won’t understand this. It will be too late when you realize this. What’s wrong with being two faced? Survival is the only motto of the fittest. You stand for your group. When you are on the giving end, be with the givers. When you are on the receiving end, be with the receivers. Don’t pretend to be the giver in all situations.”

“You are smart. But I am honest to myself. I hate others in my land so I can relate to the others who hate me in their land.”

“Then why are you with them?”

“Because I support their hate!”

“Aren’t they hating you?”

“No, they will start loving me at some point in time. When they chase you all away, I will be the last one to be chased or I might get accepted as one of them.”

“Because you hate like they do?”

“Yes. Please don’t call it hate. They don’t hate their own clan. They try to save theirs from others, which is what all people and things have been doing from prehistoric times.”

A CD in a card wallet, sitting there, uncontrollably asked, “Guys, there is something called evolution. Why don’t you please evolve into better things? This is the twenty-first century. Just because things have been like this all along, does it mean you have to be like this forever? Hating others in your place, getting hated in others’ place, hating others in others’ place… There is another option. It’s a better one too. Why can’t you consider that? Why can’t you love others? If that is so difficult, why don’t shut up, sorry, pardon my language, why don’t you keep calm and carry on with your own business?”

The plastic cover and the bookalike looked at each other. The plastic cover said angrily, “You know what! It’s elements like you who have to be kicked, both in the CD community and in the books. You think we don’t know how to live our lives! You just shut up and carry on with your business. We will show you your place soon.”

March 11, 2020 Saturday 6:00 AM

“Hey, wake up… wake up… It’s do or die for us today. If we don’t show our strength today. CDs will take over libraries, not only ours, all libraries all over the world. Let’s teach them a lesson in ours first. Libraries all over the world will see the domino effect.”

“Dad… please let me sleep for some more time. Why don’t you leave me alone on weekends?”

“You fool. Do you know it used to be only books till the early eighties in the libraries? We used to fight among ourselves then. Then CDs came into libraries. That’s when libraries started going down this path. In another five years, all libraries will be filled with only CDs and DVDs. I heard that people are planning to burn all the books in the next few years. If we have to save our group, we have to do this. You may not agree with me now. A good son need not agree with his dad’s words all the time. But he shouldn’t contradict his dad’s actions. You join me today. We will discuss everything else later.”

9:00 AM

By 9:00 AM, an unexpected number of books turned up for the procession. Emotions ran high. The books realized how powerful a group they are. Some of the oldest books stood up and addressed the gathering with proud stories about their forefathers and how they helped humans with their wisdom for generations. Some of them just poured empty slogans to boost the morale and the hate towards CDs.

One of the big books delivered a rousing speech: “We are ending this procession near the CD Town. Expect some miscreants to challenge us with their muscle power. We are nothing less to them when it comes to violence. If it comes to that, we can easily outdo them. Be prepared for the worst. We might lose a few lives today. If we don’t do that today, the entire book kind will get wiped off this planet, like dinosaurs. We don’t even know if audiobooks will talk about us after we are gone. We have to save ourselves. No one else will help us. The law of the land is not supporting us even though it’s our land. Let’s take the law into our own hands today. That’s how we are going to show to the world this is our land and we are in charge of that.”

Another big book: “I am okay with everything else. There was a time when 100 people came into the library in a day, all of them borrowed only books. Then it became mostly books and a few CDs. We are at a point where the existence of books is threatened by an increasing number of CD borrowers. It will only get worse. There will be more people borrowing only CDs, and at some point in time, it will become no books and only CDs. I don’t want to see that. This is supported by the library policies as well. They have 21 days due period for books and 14 days for CDs. What does this mean? The library itself is promoting CDs. I want to make it the other way around. The library should announce 21 days for CDs and 7 days for books.”

A book in the front row asked the book standing next to him, “Hey, is he talking sense? Will people be able to read us within 7 days? Some people, even after three renewals, don’t finish a book now. If they change the policy, will it not make us more useless?”

“I don’t know. But two different due periods is injustice, right? We shouldn’t allow that,” said the other book with a confused face and tone.

The bookalike CD along with many other CDs arrived with a huge banner - ‘CDs for Books’. While some books gave them thumbs ups with all happiness on their face, few books didn’t like their presence in that place.

“Dude, what are you doing here?” asked a Horror book.

“We are with you, man! CDs for Books,” replied the bookalike with a lot of energy.

Horror book wasn’t pleased. “This is a procession against you folks. And you're here to show your support, eh? Interesting.” He increased the sternness in his voice and said, “I give you 15 minutes. I want you all out with no trace of you coming here today.”

The bookalike turned pale. “Hey, man. Please understand us. We are not like the typical CDs you see. We are almost like books. We are here for a long time. We are naturalized. We don’t get accepted within our community either. We are a proud part of this library. We would love to be that way.”

The Horror book didn’t find it convincing. “Don’t tell me all these stories. It doesn’t matter whether you came in the 2 o’clock flight or 10 o’clock flight. You landed here from elsewhere. That’s what we are concerned about. All of you are the same to us. I have no patience to speak with you anymore. Disappear immediately. Otherwise, you will be the first one. Understand?”

“Yes, sir. I respect your sentiment. That’s what I have been standing up for all my life. Rest assured, our support for you will only grow within my community. I will always be there for you. Bye for now.”

“I said, get lost,” the Horror book screamed. “I am saying get lost. He keeps saying he will be there for me. That’s my problem. I am saying you shouldn’t be here. Idiot,” he murmured to his friend, a Mystery book.

The Mystery book said, “You shouldn’t have been that rude to him, man. He is supporting us. We should respect those who support us.”

“No, man! These guys are the worst lot. They are a disgrace to the CD community. They are neither truthful to their own community nor to us. They are just selfish CDs. They are worse than even Ayn Rand’s audiobooks.”

11:00 AM

Around 11:00 AM, after all the big books addressed the crowd, the procession started with a completely charged up mob of books towards the CD Town. One can’t guarantee what would happen if they see a CD on their way. Anything can happen. The mob energy was capable of doing anything at that point in time.

Around the same time, on the other end of the library, there is a gathering of like-minded books, led by the classics.

“We can’t allow this to happen in this library. It shouldn’t be allowed in any library with sane books. But in our library, we just can’t tolerate that. We have had a heritage of ‘live and let live’ for ages out here. This is one of the oldest civilized libraries in the world. We are thriving because of the CDs, DVDs, and magazines that joined us. Gone are the days of saying only books are supposed to be in a library or a library should have only books. This library is respected so much by people because there are distinguished sets of CDs and DVDs among us. We only gain by their presence, not lose anything. It’s for our own good that we need things of all sorts here. I know of a library that had only books. It was not open to accept anything else. So it ended up getting closed with no patrons. Having seen that through my own eyes elsewhere, I don’t want this library to go down the same path. I need your support. This is not a battle to be fought by CDs alone. In fact, this is not a battle to be fought by them at all. It’s a battle that we need to fight with our own near and dear. Will you stand by me?” the autobiography of you-know-who demanded.

Every book in the gathering shouted, “YESSS!”

12:00 PM

The procession neared the CD Town. The books raised their voices. 

“Library is for books! Only books belong to the library!”

“We stay in our place! You go back to your place!”

“Anti-book is anti-library!”

None of the CDs came out of their shelves. They stayed quiet. Some of them quivered\ in fear. They expected an attack anytime. But they were least prepared for a retaliation or even defense. They know that every single CD could be broken into pieces in a few hours.

Around 12:30, there was a sudden noise. It sounded like someone was opening the door. Yes, there is bright light coming inside quickly. 

All books disappeared in no time, and they were back in their respective shelves. 

The library staff who were seen only on weekdays came in with big cloths and covered all the shelves with those cloths. The library was not opened for more than a year from that date. The books and CDs had no clue what happened and why it happened first. Then they understood that the library was infected with a virus that attacked all books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, and everything else in the library. That’s why they were unable to come out of their shelves. Only when the library staff come back and remove the cloth covers and go back, all the books and CDs would be able to come out of their shelves. But they don’t know how the library would be by then. A lot might have changed. They don’t even know how many books and CDs would be alive by then. They don’t know if they would be left with the energy to fight against each other. They don’t know if they will end up working with each other to save the library forgetting the differences. They know that it has happened many times in history.