Sunday, March 11, 2018

Knowledge Keepers @ Library

Knowledge Keepers @ Library

The author discusses with librarian from Bombay Oldest Libraries regarding how they are keeping books and reading alive in today’s digital era

More Insights are available with the attached article

Written by Meera Ganapathi

Photographed by Vikram Rana

The Keepers Of Knowledge

Bombay's libraries are like the city's soul. The constitution was drafted by Dr Ambedkar, in the 151 year old David Sassoon Library. In JN Petit old men wander in every afternoon to catch a quick snooze before heading back to work, they don't seem to mind or even notice the drilling and construction work outside. So typical of Bombay, where life is defined by constant adjustment and naps happen just as surely as life goes on. My favourite spaces however, that really give you a glimpse of the prudish liberality of Bombay are the lending libraries in building societies. Here Gujarati novels spill out of shelves just like the cleavages of the protagonists on the book covers, however Mills and Boons are demurely draped in opaque brown paper to avoid scandal. I am told that cook books aren't popular anymore, the internet being a more reliable chef, but the lending libraries themselves are still thriving.

The librarians are easier now, if they are to be believed. At The People's Reading Room, the head librarian will allow you to hold onto a book for a week past the due date and not charge you a fine. They all claim to not 'shush' anymore. And at The Nehru Centre they plan to have Kindles attached to a table by the window, so you can look out at the city and read and read and read. The readers may have dwindled but the libraries have found ways to survive.