Such was Vijaya Hariharan’s love for her local library that when its owners decided to move on in 2017, she stepped in and kept it open. The neighbourhood’s lone yet impressively large library had come as a saviour for the Belapur resident and independent travel consultant, back when her son took a liking to reading books more than a decade ago. The membership excused her having to regularly buy expensive books for her speed-reading child.

“When the previous owners sent a message to all the members telling us she was leaving and if anybody wanted, they could take over, I jumped in. Within a day I decided to take over without anything in my pocket. Then I started the struggle of putting the funds together and purchased it in 2019,” She explains. “I had a fear that if nobody took over, the library would shut down permanently.”