PESHAWAR: The participants of a monthly study circle urged youth to respect feelings of others through interpersonal skills and fostering positive relationships.

They said that youth should not criticise, condemn or complain in public. They said that they should never find faults with others, rather should give honest and sincere advice.

The ‘Enlighten Lab Peshawar Circles’ (ELPC), a private initiative of volunteers comprising mostly youth, arranged its 44th monthly study circle in Archives Library Hall to discuss the timeless classic ‘How to win friends and influence people’ by Dale Carnegie (1888-1955). A large number of college and university graduates, budding literati and bibliophiles attended the event.

Panellists shared their critical views on the bestselling classic title and recommended it to readers, especially youth, to know about golden principles regarding winning over friends and influencing others with focus on changing one’s own behaviours before attempting to other’s perspective.

Bibliophiles discuss message and content of Dale Carnegie’s book

Moderating the session, Kashmala Khan, said that the book was divided into four main parts including fundamental techniques in others, six ways to make people like you, how to win people to your way of thinking and effective leadership to change people without arousing resentment.

More than 30 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide since its first publication way back in October, 1936 making it one of the bestselling titles.

Mohammad Haris Karim, chief of the circles, in his opening remarks said the timeless classic title was chosen for the monthly debate to instil in the youth the spirit of showing respect to others’ point of view. The book, he added, was based on psychology of relationships and how to maintain dignity of others despite having differences.

Prof Aftab Ali, the keynote speaker, on the occasion pointed out that the core idea of the book was to build strong relationships and influence others positively through communication and empathy. He said that the principle explained in the book advocated for changing one’s own behaviour if one wanted to change other’s behaviour.

“One of the quotes from the title has been the most inspirational for readers, saying ‘don’t be afraid of enemies, who attack you, be afraid of the friends, who flatter you,” said Prof Aftab.

Mohammad Abbas Shinwari, a participant of the event, said that principles featured in the book regarding relationships being pragmatic should be applied in practical daily life as it would help youth to improve communication skills, ethics of socialising, mutual respect and tolerance.

Amir Taj, Hamza Khan and Fatima Batool also shared their insights with audience. The lively discussion was followed by an interesting question-answer session in which the keynote speaker responded to queries of the participants.

The chief organiser presented souvenir to the guest speaker as token of gratitude for sharing his deep insights.

Published in Dawn, October 21th, 2024