BOOKS AND LIBRARIES

 

From Sampath’s Desk:

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES

 

With knowledge contours on the ever widening and revolutionary mode and the mind-blowing information explosion scaling new heights, knowledge sources now flow and flood that can be accessed with mind-boggling speed on the cyberspace through computer or mobile phone on the Internet and World-Wide-Web for knowledge enrichment and information updates. And with myriad soft forms of data storage enabled availability of information and knowledge products, the whole world has shrunk into a Global Digital Knowledge Village. Thus we are set to bequeath to our younger/next generations a fast-churning world where technology and innovation change just by the turn of a day with things getting outdated and a new trendy scenario gets inducted in very soon. Nowadays, we talk about data-mining and data-warehousing. 

 

Be that as it may, in the 1960’s when I was a schoolboy, my family was living in Chepauk in Chennai near the famous Marina Beach and Chepauk Cricket stadium (now M.A. Chidambaram Stadium) in a country-tile-roofed house in a blind lane. I used to study mostly away from my home, the host being the nearby ‘Government Estate’ behind the present auditorium ‘Kalaivanar Arangam’ (then Baalar Arangam, Children’s Theatre in English). Specifically opposite Rajaji Hall, there was vast space with plenty of trees underneath which I used to study mostly walking along, or sometimes sitting on the ground. A particular tree offered me space on one of its few curved branches (as if it was specially designed for my study) either sitting or lying down on it. The grove-like place offered me not just serenity but shelter/relief as well from the sun-heat besides guava and tamarind fruits.  

 

At nights, our lane with powerful street lights offered me a place to read. Being a blind alley there would be not be much of a disturbing vehicle movement.

  

Books and libraries have always played a vital role in one’s studies and I was no exception to it. For, they were the natural and perennial sources and storehouses of knowledge products and information searches those days. Today of course hard-disks, pen-drives, etc. can contain huge data and information.

 

I was an avid and ardent reader of English books and newspapers for language enrichment and current affairs updates. The local District Library in Big Street, Triplicane was a place I often visited for newspaper/book reading. At some weekends, I visited the famous 1890-established Connemara Library, one of the oldest in India, situated in the Museum Compound, Pantheon Road, Egmore. I also used to take books and other reading materials from my school library. As a schoolboy I spent some time in library. My local library was a quiet, well-stocked retreat from the summer heat and distractions. It was one place that I could be myself, because the books didn’t care if I was a little bit weird. They wanted to be read, and I was there to read them.

 

One of the most magical places on the Earth for me was and is a library. Nowhere else did I feel so safe and homey than in a library? The sheer scent of new books and the dust smell carried by dog-eared and fold-edged old books with torn pages including worn leather beadings/bindings would transport me into a wonderland! A library where books are arrayed in the shelves subject/topic-wise with many remaining scattered and strewn over the reading desks, a common scene, would offer me a happy study-savvy solitude with a pin-drop silence.

 

Of course, reading habit still continues, though differently. While previously there was dependence on hard copies like books and other literature, they are now available in soft forms. But the basic inclination for reading as much as possible still remains intact. Today, user-created content is all around us, from blogs and photo-streams to wiki books and video clips enabling one to become a mix of an author, creator and researcher.

 

On a lighter vein, “Everything comes to him who waits except perhaps a loaned book”, observed Kin Hubbard. Jim Rohn once quipped, “Poor people have a big TV. Rich people have a big library.” So nice! Isn't it?

 

 

 R.SAMPATH