Did you know about this library in Indirapuram's Sun Tower?
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Did you know about this library in Indirapuram's Sun Tower?

What does a bookworm do to stay around books all the time? Start a library! Even if it means selling off jewellery. Meet librarian Lakshmi Srinivasan and her eclectic possession of over 15,000 books.

Did you know about this library in Indirapuram's Sun Tower?

What do you call a room stocked with over 15,000 books? A library, certainly. The only difference — this library, christened Bookmark, is part of a first-floor flat in Sun Tower, a residential society in Indirapuram.     

The owner? Lakshmi Srinivasan.

Bookmark had its genesis way back in the early 1970s, when the country was embroiled in the terrible Indo-Pak war. Lakshmi’s father was with the Ministry of External Affairs and was often posted abroad. And the precocious reader would often be left without books, as English writing was hardly available at the time on foreign shores.

"I had already picked up the habit of reading from my father, an avid reader himself. On this one trip to Italy, I had only the first book of the Secret Seven series to survive an entire year. I felt tormented, and I must have read that one book a thousand times. Finally, I had some respite after my relatives got me a few fairytales from India,” recounts the librarian.  

For Lakshmi, the yearning to always be around books never left.

The library is stocked with all sorts of books — philosophy, cookery, childcare, parenting, petcare poetry, history and literature, of course. Donations are welcome, but pirated copies are a big no.

For this English teacher at Indirapuram Public School in Pratap Vihar, setting up the library came at a price — but she was all too willing to pay. She says, “I sold off my jewellery to buy books. I even took a sabbatical for two years from 2006 to 2008 to get the whole thing going. Now, I need more time and space to accommodate new books.”  

Any regrets? "Only one," replies Lakshmi, and adds rather cautiously, “Two complete works of William Shakespeare have gone missing from the collection. I don’t know who would do such a thing! You wouldn’t find too many in our generation, or the next, trying to steal Shakespeare!”

When asked about her most expensive possession, she quickly retreats into one of the rooms and emerges minutes later with what appears to be an encyclopaedia and a yellowish, hard-bound book. Pointing at the encyclopaedia, she says, “The one here is a day-by-day documentation of the Second World War. It’s really a collector's edition, and I got it for a good bargain from someone who didn’t know its worth. The other one is an old copy of Palgrave's Golden Treasury, a widely popular collection of English poems. It was a gift from my school principal in Colombo. It’s over a hundred years old and very close to my heart.”

Like any other library, Bookmark, too, offers membership. For children, it is Rs 1,450 for registration and Rs 450 for quarterly charges, and the member can borrow two children's books at a time. For adults, it is Rs 1,700 for registration, and a quarterly fee of Rs 450, and the member can borrow one book, along with a children's book at a time. There’s also family membership of Rs 1,500 as one-time registration, and Rs 600 as quarterly charges for four books.

The library, which currently has about 75 members, opens at 5.30 pm and closes at 8.30 pm.

Lakshmi has always been naturally inclined towards debates, group discussions and book readings. In fact, she started holding sessions at the tower's community hall, but had to stop, following a rejoinder from the RWA, who took it for a commercial activity.

Lakshmi lives here with her husband, a mechanical engineer-and-researcher; her daughter, a food journalist, and her son, a musician.