No books in our localities

If it werenrsquot for Indiarsquos women we would have to consider giving up on the Olympics I say this in all seriousness going by the hoops our sportspeople have to jump through in order to come close to any medal at all That they do this repeatedly every four years is testament to their dedication and skill alone It is not the presence of any sports ministry no matter how many advertisements that ministry will pay for to claim a spotlight for itself and the clown who happens to be heading its portfolioI thought about a library this week and kept thinking about it for reasons that didnrsquot make much sense There was nothing to trigger this memory but it calmed me and compelled me to think about that longforgotten corner forever relegated to a part of the city I havenrsquot visited in yearsThe library in question was part of my school and I remember the face of the librarian as vividly as I recall the musty smell of pages sinking deeper into their spines with every passing year Her name was Uma and I imagine she must have long relinquished that post for a life in retirement I think of her with fondness though because even though her role felt insignificant at the time hindsight makes it loom large in my personal history If it werenrsquot for Uma in those years before the dawn of the Internet my life would be less colourful She nudged me towards authors I had never heard of placed books I wouldnrsquot have considered within armrsquos reach and turned a blind eye to titles that were overdue because I suspect she knew that I like her loved books more than most other thingsThere was no reason for my school to keep its library open all through summer either I donrsquot recall seeing more than three students at any time on the afternoons I spent in that room while so many of my classmates played football outside I didnrsquot do it because I was an introvert but because being there made me happy We were allowed to take home one book at a time for a week after which we had the option of renewing it or getting another one in exchange These records were all maintained manually and painstakingly in registers stacked in filing cabinets behind Umarsquos table I could flip through earlier editions of these registers and get an inkling of what schoolchildren of generations past had spent their own summers readingWe are not a city in love with libraries We visit them in our youth if at all depending upon how serious we are about our fields of study and if they require trips to a library to begin with I consider myself lucky that the degrees I was working towards necessitated frequent visits not just to my college library but to others run by the British Council Asiatic Society University of Bombay and the American Centre Some were far better managed than others of course but they all served their purpose admirably allowing me access to manuscripts that changed the way I thought worked and livedEvery locality should have a library This isnrsquot a fantasy I like to peddle but a belief that something as simple as access to books can influence a generation It is only when one looks at the lifeaffirming power of these nondescript rooms in poorer localities that one can truly appreciate their importance Itrsquos why students in tiny villages dream of them the way engineers in urban India hope for jobs in Silicon ValleySomething magical happens when a library opens in a place that has not had one We may feel as if we donrsquot need them because our phones now offer us views and perspectives from around the world but nothing can replace the magical act of stumbling upon a book one has never heard of or a writer with the potential to shift something deep inside us that we didnrsquot know needed shifting Itrsquos what gives bookstores one of their many advantages over ecommerceThe past couple of months have seen multiple reports of billionaires jetting off to space pretending to look for new colonies to conquer in the hope that the rest of us wonrsquot notice how utterly wasteful and boastful their endeavours really are Less than a generation ago the wealthiest people in the world would use their money for vanity projects that included school buildings concert halls and hospital wings named after their departed relatives That todayrsquos billionaires feel a need to feed their egos by stepping into flying machines is a sad reflection of how intellectually bankrupt they have becomeIndiarsquos richest havenrsquot fared any better naturally and wonrsquot because they have a history of poor choices behind them If I earn a million dollars I have absolutely no intention of funding a rocket plastering photographs of myself on billboards or setting up businesses named after a parent I will happily pay to build a library thoughWhen he isnrsquot ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereiraSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper