A cat doesn’t care whose books they are or who built the library—only that knowledge is warm, and worth curling up with.
Let's add fun & tonic with knowledge this Snarky Saturday.
I think establishing libraries is the State’s constitutional obligation. But spreading of knowledge is anathema for the politicians. So, innovatively, they starve libraries of funds and grants, eventually to die on its own.
Shutting down of libraries has reached an alarming level for lack of funds, across the world.
Many States in India, levy library cess or mark a small percentage of its land revenue for establishing libraries but no one knows where these funds go - thousands of libraries have vanished already.
In Goa, liquor is cheap, domestic and international tourism is on the rise. So, they generate funds by earmarking a percentage of revenue from liquor sales towards funding libraries. I wonder if liquor buyers go to libraries to recover their taxes🤔
UK libraries also has a history of funds crunch. But in 2012, the squatters reopened Friern Barnet's crumbling building into a community library. Authorities tried to shut it, the community protested, but the library lived on.
Fast forward to 2018, in Ankara, a group of garbage collectors found something precious in the trash—books. Not one. Not ten. Thousands.
They started saving them. Reading them. Sharing them. And soon, an abandoned brick factory became a public library with 6,000+ books on literature, science, comics, even foreign languages.
Not All Heroes Wear Capes. Some Wear Green Vests or None.
Schools, prisons, and entire villages now borrow books from it.
No titles. No funding. Just a spirit to preserve knowledge, share it freely, and going strong.
May we all learn from those who turn dustbins into bookshelves and ruins into reading rooms.
Dignity isn’t defined by where you work, but by what you are willing to do for others. Isn’t it?
As Maya Angelou said, “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.”
Even if you find your lesson next to a banana peel.
Let's hope the generations ahead do not slip on the banana peel, your books land in libraries, and wherever your book rests, a cat curls up, and knowledge blooms.
Btw, your liking and commenting on this post adds to my knowledge. Bestow it.
Who would throw their thousands of books in trash 😨
Just like you i love libraries. small or big... Lemme tell you a secret it's my wish to own a little book exchange kinda library let's see if my wish comes true or not 😁
Loved what you wrote, Ashok, and so relevant too in the present. I agree with you that libraries are vanishing now from our culture. I remember, during my growing up years, I used to visit the British Council library, the National library and the USIS library frequently and spent hours browsing and reading books.
Came to know recently that the public library in our locality has become a skeleton of what it used to be, due to lack of funding from the government. I think we are also partly to blame for this apathetic condition.
Your article has touched a chord. Thanks.