The Society Library

The Society Library

How books are breaking new ground in NCR’s housing societies

There’s little room for libraries in NCR’s urban spaces. But bibliophiles have found their spots in housing societies, carving out spaces that have become the centrepiece of small literary ecosystems that boast everything from book clubs to author readings and mini-litfests, finds Joeanna Rebello Fernandes.

Years after apartment complexes in NCR have been comfortably settled, a new ‘facility’ is becoming more and more noticeable in the modern gated conveniences. Unlike the swimming pool and the bridge room, this late bloomer did not exist on builders’ sales brochures.

Deprived of the breadth of book shops and libraries to which Delhi has access, several housing societies in Gurugram, Noida and Faridabad have, over the past few years, sprung little libraries of their own. This has often been the love-labour of a few bibliophilic residents, who requisition from builders and RWAs tiny rooms — often no larger than broom closets — and stock them with volumes solicited from the residents themselves.

This ecosystem is lit

The libraries themselves have become the nucleus of a literary ecosystem of book clubs, author visits, and pocket-size litfests in homes and society clubhouses. These are not to be underestimated, for each of these collectives catalyses new perspectives and ideas possibly alien to one’s own, and their discussions bring back that once-thriving culture of communal discourse. And there’s no better place to reconsider one’s place and role in society than, well, in a society.

Wisteria Little Free Library in Prateek Wisteria has around 6,000 books. This housing complex in Noida’s Sector 77 has 1,800 families. Set up in March 2016 by resident Pankaj Gupta, a financial services executive, the library sprawls across the lobby of one of its towers. Pankaj devotes half an hour every day before and after work to bringing order to the shelves, which were paid for partly with a few donations and largely with his own money. This free library charges nothing and keeps no librarian. “It is open 24/7. People can borrow books when they like and return them when they’re done,” he says.

Unfortunately, this ‘open book’ policy relieved the shelves of nearly 4,000 books when initially borrowers turned defaulters. Now, all books are stamped and there’s a logbook to make people more accountable. Pankaj expects those who love books to care enough to return them.

Who’s on the shelves?

The collection is miscellaneous, with current bestsellers, pulp, comics, classics and even study guides. There’s JRR Tolkien, Stieg Larsson, Aravind Adiga, PG Wodehouse, William Dalrymple, Margaret Atwood, Joseph Conrad, Dario Fo, Noam Chomsky, Shashi Tharoor, and those are just the first stack. “I buy a few titles myself and receive some from the folks at Books on the Delhi Metro (a group that randomly leaves behind books on the Metro for people to read for free and return),” says Pankaj. He even received an entire almirah full of books from an 84-year-old man living elsewhere. Word of this library has spread and donations now come from everywhere.

Across the pond, the library at Vatika City on Sohna Road in Gurugram, receives about 100 to 120 book donations a month, mostly from residents. The inventory currently has around 4,000 copies, stacked on bare metal shelves in a tiny room in their clubhouse. Floated in December 2015, the library is managed by the Senior Citizens of Vatika Association, a group that assigns library duty to four retired members on a rotational basis.

“We charge a membership fee of Rs 200, renewable at Rs 100 a year,” says Sharat Mathur, a retired officer of the water supply and sanitation department of Rajasthan. Mathur is among the volunteers and spends an hour, morning and evening, managing the register. “Most of our members are senior citizens and children. For the older lot, we have magazines as well — two current affairs and two women’s titles; and for the children, we have 1,560 books,” he says.

Starting conversations

In Noida, Archana Atri’s home is such an agora. For the last nine years, Archana, a former radio and TV exec, has been inviting members of her club — AA’s Book Nerds (grouped by age, from 5 to 14) — to think long and hard about the world they inhabit, through the books they read. She selects books that are important conversation-starters, of subjects often overlooked in homes and schools.

“Bhimayana was a book we discussed in our 10-13 age group. One parent felt it was inappropriate for children because it had the word ‘bastard’,” says Archana. While the book was initially going to be a springboard to a discussion on caste, it also threw up an opportunity to discuss language and word-value. “We discussed why people of certain caste are abused; what these abuses mean; and how we could take away the negativity attached to these words. Parents too were part of this discussion. I wanted children to hear a voice different from what they typically hear at home,” she says.

Archana’s book discussions — on caste, race, religion, gender, mental health — often go beyond the book, to art galleries and NGOs, craft sessions and lit-character costume parties. She hosts meetings with authors in her home and sets up video-chats with authors and illustrators in other cities. She even organised a children’s litfest in her society, and has launched a support group on Facebook to help fellow organisers of book clubs spread the word.

At some condos, like Vatika City, book clubs are a parent-led enterprise, with mums and dads volunteering to conduct weekly read-alouds and book discussions. Pallavi Singh, a volunteer, says she wanted her daughters (aged 3 and 5) to be part of an environment where they could interact with other children who also love books. “It’s not only my children who are developing new perspectives here, but me as well,” she says.

Their common interest in literature took members of Laburnum Book Club (LBC) in Gurugram’s Sector 28 all the way to Jaipur for its annual litfest. Uma Prakash, who founded the club six years ago with her friend Meetali Narain, says it even bred a children’s offshoot at Laburnum, their condominium. Uma happens to be the co-founder of the performing arts festival, Gurugram Utsav, and knows how to keep things lively.

Culture of debate

Red letter days are when authors themselves drop by. Journalist and author Rajdeep Sardesai fielded questions on Democracy’s XI, his anthology of Indian cricket’s boundary-breakers while Rahul Pandita brought home the ordeal of Kashmiri Pandits through his memoir Our Moon has Blood Clots.

“We all have our own interpretations of a subject. Sometimes it’s good to leave the room with a different point of view; it broadens your thinking,” says Uma.

If a condo book culture is on the rise, and it generates healthy debate and patient discussion, community living — increasingly fraught with disagreement and diatribe — will have certainly turned the page.

Source | https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Regards

Mr. Pralhad Jadhav 

Master of Library & Information Science (NET Qualified) 

Senior Manager @ Knowledge Repository  

Khaitan & Co 

Blog | http://pralhad-fyilibrarian.blogspot.in/  

Website | https://sites.google.com/site/pralhadjadhavlib/home        

Twitter Handle | @Pralhad161978