HYDERABAD: City-based library owners, on National Reading Day, traced their journeys from starting personal book collections to setting up larger public facilities, which have turned into important locales for literary discourses.
June 19 is the death anniversary of P.N. Panicker of Kerala, who is known as the ‘father of the library movement’. He initiated the Kerala Grandhasala Sangham, which sparked a cultural movement in Kerala which led to the state achieving universal literacy.
Varsha Ramesh, an entrepreneur in education, who holds an MBA in finance, started her journey by setting up a private library ‘Books n More in Secunderabad’ in 2011, with a collection of around 8,000 books, which has now mushroomed into a trove of 25,000 books.
“We have the largest private library in Hyderabad. We have a single copy of each book, which makes us unique. The books range from fiction and non-fiction to travel catalogues, children’s books, encyclopaedias and classics. Children’s books are the most popular and we have approximately 16,000 children’s books in our library,” said Varsha Ramesh.
She has decided to manage the library as her full-time job and also helps others set up libraries. Her personal collection comprises over 5,000 books.
‘The Book Shelf’ is a popular exclusive children’s library located in Amberpet.
Bathula Haripiya, who set up the facility at DD Colony in 2016, said the facility has more than 10,000 children’s books sourced from publishers and authors across India.
Haripriya was acquainted with the public library system while pursuing her masters in Singapore and the idea stayed with her. Upon her return to India in 2011, she found Hyderabad was missing such a space for children.
Haripriya said, “I would read to my niece and nephew everyday and we had lot of books in the house. But I realised having access to and suggesting books is very important. I took a couple of years to understand children’s literature and the scenario in India and finally, opened the facility. Unlike other libraries, our library is a community space that is playful and a noisy one, where children read together. We also do many story-related activities with children.”
Praveen Mishra, a vice-president with a software company, said he used to run an online and physical library until Covid-19 struck. He, however, still retains a collection of more than 3,500 books and donates to colleges and institutes, wherever possible.
His interest lies largely in Hindi literature and classics such as ‘Godan’ and ‘Gaban’ are his all-time favourites.
“We facilitated online rentals of the book and also ran a physical library called Inkreaders. However, we had to shut due to Covid. But I still continue to engage with the world of books. I still have plans to revive my library with more books,” said Praveen.
The recent inaugural of Dr Omar Khalidi Hall at the H.K. Sherwani Centre for Deccan Studies at Manuu is another example of a personal collection of books turning into a library. The hall has a collection of more than 1,600 books of the historian-author, which were brought all the way from Boston in the USA to India.
