When you think of a library, what comes to mind? Racks filled with books? Signs displaying ‘silence please’, perhaps? To flout these rules, comes the Human Library, to Hyderabad, for the first time.
Here, silence is a word that is unheard of. The books are actually people with interesting life stories. The event that took place on Saturday morning, was organised by a team from the Annapurna International School of Film & Media.
One of the books was titled ‘A Man’s journey to the Epitome of Grace’. A picture of a beautiful lady, clad in a Kuchipudi attire, greets the reader. When the name of the protagonist of the book is revealed — Haleem Khan, readers cannot but hear the entire story.
“I got attracted to Kuchipudi while watching performances on Doordarshan. Since I come from a Muslim family and I knew my parents would not embrace this passion of mine, I learnt dance secretly, for eight years. It was only when they watched my interview on TV that they came to know about it,” says Haleem.
A domestic abuse survivor, Ruhana (name changed), said, “The abuse started when my husband started having an affair. It became so bad that I decided to kill myself. My kids came rushing, hugged me and started crying, that’s when it struck me that I have to live for them.”
Kakkulal Sohni, the principal of an architecture college, came to the event with his family. “I was so intrigued by the concept and now, I don’t want to leave the place until I’ve ‘read all the books’,” he said. Prateek Reddy, a law student, said, “I loved the experience of being able to ask a book questions. It takes courage for people to open up to strangers about something personal.”
Harshad Fad and Lyzandra Lewis, the organisers, talk of how the idea came about. “I used to be a person with many prejudices and I never understood the LGBT community. But one day, I met such a person on a train, and he changed my perspective forever. That’s when I understood that one shouldn’t judge a book by the cover and that can only be done by actually having a one-on-one conversation with them,” said Harshad.
