Enough Is Enough, Reopen My Library!

Image used for representation only

 

Now, reading what is going to follow this paragraph might make you think that I have been inhaling copious amounts of the good stuff, but allow me to assure you that I have not. With that disclaimer in place, here’s what I’ve been thinking about as I prepare to write this week’s column:

The present is all about creating memories of the past so as to make the future less boring.

Again, I assure you of my sobriety. Truly, I really do.

But if you would do me the favor of moving past the stage of incredulousness, here is what I’m trying to get at: how well have you lived if you haven’t collected some truly memorable memories?

One such memory, in my case, happens to be making periodic visits to the British Council Library. Every Puneri knows of the British Council Library, of course – if not the actual place, as the punchline to the most Puneri of jokes. Remind me to tell you all about it the next time we meet, and chortle gently to yourself if you have already heard it.

The place itself was truly wonderful, of course. A nondescript building on Fergusson College Road, it housed a fairly decent collection of books spread over three floors. It was quiet, laidback and yet efficient in a way that any true citizen of our city couldn’t help but appreciate. Staffed by kind, warm people who were perfectly willing to help you out but would never stand for nonsense of any sort, it managed to trundle along just fine for decades. My grandfather was a member of the library, as am I, and I had the very great pleasure of upgrading my membership to the family level from that of the individual.

The pleasure lay, of course, in introducing my daughter to the treasures of the British Council Library, and it had become a minor ritual of sorts for us on the weekends to traipse into the library, and stagger out under the weight of various books. The family membership allows one to issue up to fourteen books at one go, and I have yet to meet a Puneri who doesn’t appreciate a good deal.

Except of course, it proved to be too good a thing to last forever. Earlier this year, members of the library were informed that the library would be moving to a new location, and that the library would be open in a matter of a week or so. What I speak of transpired in June, and it is now September, but the doors to the new premises remain resolutely shut.

It is a pity, really, that this should be the case, because the British Council Library was a truly wonderful place, replete with memories for me, and I had just about started building up those memories for (and with) my daughter as well. Still, it seems the library will reopen soon, this time with a cafe and wifi as added incentives.

Personally, I’d happily settle for an earlier opening sans the cafe and the internet, for those things are near universal today. A place where you can immerse yourself into a world of books for hours on end is the rare, precious commodity – and I’d be far happier if it was a reality rather than a memory.

 

 

#All views expressed in this column are the authors and Pune365 does not necessarily subscribe to them. 

Ashish Kulkarni