Temples of knowledge ! - The “City Central Library

The name ‘City Central Library’ - ‘ನಗರ ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಗ್ರಂಥಾಲಯ’ in Kannada - always strikes a chord in me. The day before yesterday I saw the board at the BDA commercial complex at Banashankari and went inside. There were about a dozen people reading something or the other. The shelves contained lots of government publications, many literary works stocked out of compulsion, plenty of dog eared old books but also quite a few books which I wanted to read ! I made enquiries regarding obtaining a membership and was asked to get a copy of the ADHAR card and few copies of my Photographs. 

I went there yesterday morning carrying the required stuff and was asked to write my name, address and phone number on a form. I did that, paid a refundable deposit of Rs 200, and came out carrying four books which I had spotted the previous evening ! The official who was in charge was extremely cordial and the entire process took about 15 minutes. I was very pleasantly surprised at the ease with which I could obtain a membership and my liking of CCLs went up by a notch ! 

  

The department of libraries introduced ‘City Central library’ to Bengaluru around 1970. The first library was at KH road (Double Road), near my house and my mother was one of the first few members. All my family members have been very enthusiastic users of the library. My father was a permanent fixture there on Sundays and we have seen him spend the entire day there, forgetting food and drink! Before the City Central Library came into existence, he was a weekly visitor to the Public Library in Cubbon park, Bengaluru. 

During one of my browsing sessions through the shelves of the library, I found a copy of the kannada translation of “The Farmer boy” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. That was a time when I was a daily visitor to the library. A period of six months after my 12th standard and before the start of our course in Dental College. I stood in the narrow passage between the shelves engrossed in the book and later shifted to a more comfortable position in the reference section. I remember taking the book in my hand around 10am in the morning and I came out around half past one, after finishing the book !  I became an immediate fan of the author and I might have read all her books at least half a dozen times. 

During the next week, I borrowed one book each day - Little house in the big woods, Little house on the Prairie, On the shores of Silver lake - to name a few,  and finished the series in a week. Subsequently my brother and sister also turned out to be Laura fans and between us we have all her books - both the original english editions and kannada translations - in our possession. It is through her books that I first heard the names Wisconsin, Minnesota, Tennessee, Prairies, Great lakes etc etc. These books are in circulation between us even today !

Laura Ingalls wrote the very popular ‘little house series’ (A popular TV serial too) based on her family’s travel westwards during the 1800s in the US. Laura’s family was one of the pioneer agriculturists who moved continuously looking for better pastures during the eighteenth century. With some curiosity, I looked for her books in the Public Library at Canton, MI, USA and was disappointed when I did not find even one of them! I enquired with the librarian and was told to look in the children’s section. 

So, one senior citizen went to the children’s section at the Canton City Library, was very glad to find all the books of one of his favourite authors and happier to find one which he had not read before !  I later visited city libraries in Dearborn, Plymouth, Novi, Northville, Wayne and so on and loved the libraries in the US. I was extremely impressed by the unhindered access to all facilities available in the libraries and the comfortable seating. I loved the  large print editions of the popular books for senior citizens. These library visits have been a high point in my trip to the US. 

Now, armed with my membership card of the CCL Bengaluru I plan to check all libraries around (there are three CCl branches in a radius of 2 kms from my house - they now have about 30 central libraries and 550 branches in the state) and hope to be able to access the digital library too. To start with, the three books shown above - DVG’s ‘Smriti ChitragaLu’, and a book on Pu Ti Na, will keep me busy for the next two weeks or more !