[Reader-list] Happy Sunday :) Library and Garbage bins

[Shveta]

dear All,

Wanted to share a visit to a small library last year, in Dakshinpuri, a 
resettlement colony in South Delhi. Dakshinpuri emerged in the mid-70s, 
when people evicted from squatter settlements/slums all over Delhi 
during the Emergency were given 22.5 sq m plots of land and settled here 
in large numbers.

In the late-70s, the municipality had built a structure which housed a 
TV centre, a one room library and a dispensary here. The TV centre fell 
into disuse in the mid-80s, the dispensary moved away to another site. 
The library continues. It's a small room, about 24 sq m, with a high 
ceiling. It has a wooden table for the librarian, and perpendicular to 
it are two long reading tables. Six chairs. Dark coloured metal 
shelf-almirahs are lined along three walls.

I picked up an english translation of Vinod Kumar Shukl's 'Deewar Mein 
Khirki Rehti Thi' (There was a window in the wall). It had not been 
issued ever.

The man in-charge was in his mid-30s, and extremely generous and 
comfortable with visitors. He had worked in a braille library earlier, 
and also in the big Delhi Public Library in Old Delhi. There was one 
reader in the library, man about 45 years, who has been coming to the 
library regularly for the last 2 years, and spends most of his time 
reading the newspapers.

My friend who'd led me to the library, Rakesh, remembers the library 
from his childhood. He used to watch screenings on the huge screen in 
the TV centre in the evenings, and fondly remembers the earlier, old 
librarian popularly called Netaji in the neighbourhood. According to 
Rakesh, Netaji was a solitary man, but would visit the houses of people 
who happened to not have returned the library books on time. Once, a 
story goes, the father of the firl who had issued a book and forgotten 
to return it, had exclaimed to Netaji, "You should have come before she 
got married! Now she's taken the book with her." Many such stories are 
associated with Netaji and the library.

The present librarian said the library sometimes receives gifts of books 
from people, but this is usually not encouraged. The accession policy of 
the library is centralised, with the head office in Sarojini Nagar as 
the sole authority that takes decisions on this.

A young girl returned a novel in Hindi and issued a cookery book. An 
adolescent boy issues 'Phoolon Wali Raat' (The night of the flowers) on 
his father's card. Saraswati, 34-years-old is yet to return a book on 
Primary Teachers' Entrance Exam. Arun Kumar, 17 years, issued 'Career 
Counseling' a few days ago. Abhishek, 15 years, has issued 'Shiva 
Mahapurana' (Tales of Lord Shiva) and Manoj Kumar, 23 years, 'Tales of 
Buddha'. Saurabh, 12 years, has taken the book 'India and Its 
International Relations'. Gaurav, 14, has 'Computer Science' and Vinod, 
18, 'Gems from the caves of Orissa'. 'Best of Tenali Rama' has been 
issed to Surya Karan, 18-years-old. Farhan, 13, has 'Tenali Rama'. Sonu 
Suleman, 29 years, is reading about 'Internet and the Modern Library'.

Ashok Kumar, 14 years is reading 'Wonders of the Animal World'. Mohan, 
16 years, 'The Dreams of Outer Space'. 'Discovery Channel Vigyan 
Sangraha' (Discovery Channel's Science Compendium) has been issued by 
Prem Pal, 10 years and Mahinder, 44 years. Hoshiyar Singh, 45 years, has 
'Goodwill's Common Errors in English' and 'Improve Your English'. Govind 
Lal Sharma, 38 years, has 'The McGraw Hill Handbook of English Grammar'.

What is Nikhil Bansal, 14 years, doing with 'Buddhimaan Bahu' (The 
Intelligent Daughter-in-Law)?

Bhagchandra, 21 years, seems to be preparing for his Civil Service exams 
on political science and international relations.

Many young men came to the library looking for employment news. They 
spent a lot of time going through the details in the employment 
newspapers. One came looking specifically for the employment news of a 
particular date.

Piyush, 9 years and Megha, 10 years, seem to be brother and sister, 
heavily into adventures. Amrita Khanna, 13 years, Roshni, 18 years, 
Sushma, 16 years, Shubha, 20 years, Manju, 14 years, Renu, 24 years, 
Meena, 18 years have issued books on environmental quiz, Chanakya Niti 
(Chanakya's Counsel), english grammar, small scale industries, feature 
writing. Tell Me Why.

Kailash Chand from neighbouring Pushpa Vihar has issued 'School of 
Wizadry'.

There is a small, dimly lit room adjunct to the library. Books, arranged 
in many piles, around 20 to a bundle, wait to be taken to the shredder. 
They are all old books, their original covers and binding have come 
apart. On top of one of the piles lies the book, 'Dilli Badal Gayi' 
(Delhi has changed) by Shri Lakshman Narayan Sharma, Aviram Prakashan, 
1996. It has not been issued once.

The most issued book in the library is 'Kartoon ki Kahani', Aruna 
Prakshan, 1990.

warmly
shveta



Monica Narula wrote:
> Talking of libraries and books, here is an interesting link
>
> http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/373-a-map-of-the-land-of-books/
>
> You can see a picture of a map of the land of books :-)
>
> and below is the description from that page.
>
> best
> M
> This map by German illustrator Alphons Woelfle (1938) shows the extent  
> and the divisions of Bücherland (the Land of Books). The Land consists  
> of about half a dozen distinct territories, most of which are  
> explicitly named: Leserrepublik (Reader’s Republic), Vereinigte  
> Buchhandelsstaaten (United States of Booksellers), Recensentia (a  
> realm for Reviewers), Makulaturia (Waste Paper Land), and Poesia  
> (Poetry). The capital of the US of B is the city of Officina (Latin  
> for workshop, and the origin of our ‘office’; the name seems  
> remarkably unremarkable. Possibly there is an old reference or a  
> German word-joke here we’re not getting).
>
> Plotting out imagined places on a map as if they were “real” countries  
> is a favourite trope in curious cartography. The artificial equation  
> of place and meaning allows for double-entendres and other humorous  
> leaps of the imagination on which this allegorical form of cartography  
> thrives. As a sub-genre of cartography, it has been around since at  
> least La carte de tendre, an 18th-century French map of love’s  
> topography (discussed in entry #245 of this blog). Other examples  
> previously discussed include a Map on Temperance (#258) or a German  
> map of the Empire of Love (#59).
>
> This map was possibly commissioned by the Heimeran Verlag (publishing  
> house) of Munich, a frequent employer of Mr Woelfle’s artisanship –  
> although no information could be found relating to the specific  
> circumstances of this map. One can only presume that it illustrated a  
> book about books, or more precisely, a book about publishing. The look  
> and feel of the map is definitely older than its mid-20th-century age;  
> in a positive case of antiquarianism (i.e. lending something  
> respectability by increasing its age), it has been made to resemble  
> the maps of earlier times (17th, 18th century, I’d say).
>
> Monica Narula
> Raqs Media Collective
> Sarai-CSDS
> www.raqsmediacollective.net
> www.sarai.net
>
>
>
> On 10-May-09, at 6:07 AM, Jeebesh wrote:
>
>   
>> Dear All,
>>
>> It's Sunday morning in Delhi. It's nice and warm. The birds are
>> eagerly practicing flight as the afternoon sun will start draining
>> them. The ants crawl the trees in quick hope of feed. Heat will slowly
>> make them much less mobile as the day progresses. Delhi summer heat
>> beats down everyone. Very little insight comes of it :)
>>
>> Is it possible to calm the heat down in this list? Well here is a
>> suggestion.
>>
>> Can we together explore two questions that can maybe give us all some
>> vantage point to better understand the milieu we live in.
>>
>> 1) Why is there almost no public library in the cities in India?
>> Simple places that one goes to read and meet people from other walks
>> of life.
>>
>> Was recently in Montreal and was taken to the newly built public
>> library there. It has been jointly built by the municipality, the
>> province and the federal funding. It is managed by an group of
>> librarian and has already developed an amazing collection of books.
>> It's children section was an amazing zone. The library had a sitting
>> arrangement for many hundred and has wireless connectivity.
>>
>> 2) Why are the public garbage bin's design so unimaginative in the
>> cities in India?  We keep hearing so much about enormous garbage being
>> produced by our increasingly visible and affluent middle class and so
>> little innovation in garbage bins. Huge fences guard the various
>> localities but the garbage bins remain undesigned and overflowing.
>> This is a strange anomaly.
>>
>> Thought this maybe a good starting point for sunday thinking :)
>>
>> warmly
>> Jeebesh