queen empress mary library, agra - revival plans
Post on 18-Apr-2015
101 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Queen Mary Empress Public Library Beside DC Nand Plaza, Shahzadi Mandi, Agra Cantt. Uttar Pradesh, INDIA
As visited by
Vishal Sharma
On
15th November, 2011
Visited the Queen Mary Empress Library with its current Librarian Mrs. Lebon who has been taking care
of it since the past four years. Before her, the library was in the hands of Mrs. Beal, a former teacher at
St. Peter’s College. Mrs. Lebon taught at both St. Clare’s and St. George’s College before retiring.
When I entered the library premises,
the foul stench of human waste was
overpowering. Evidently, the
shopkeepers from the market across
the road use it as a public toilet. The
library grounds are untended and are in
a state of complete mess since Diwali,
when it was let out by the authorities to
shopkeepers to sell fireworks. The
empty cartons and discarded polythene
packaging was visible all around the
place, stacked in big piles.
As soon as I reached the main building, it came as a
rude shock to me to see people sleeping in the
porch on “charpais” with a complete disregard to
the 77 years old librarian, who kept demanding that
the charpais be removed to no avail. When I
stepped in and asked them sternly to move out,
they turned combative, using particularly harsh
language against the librarian and started claiming
that they’ve been living here for decades and they won’t move
out….. it turns out that this is the extended family of the library’s
chowkidar, who himself is now more than 70 years of age and
unable to perform his duties. There are about 10-12 members of
his family living in the premises and utilizing the whole place,
dominating over the
aged librarian who is
a lady of Portuguese
origin and does not
understand Hindi
very well.
The plaster is falling from nearly all sides of the library, and
the doors and windows are all in a very bad shape, with
window panes broken and the locks broken in by
unscrupulous elements, in the obvious presence of the
chowkidar and his family. The chowkidar himself was absent
as he was attending a wedding in his family and had taken
the keys to the library with him. Mrs. Lebon and
myself, circled around the library to check out how
badly it has been damaged since she had left for
Goa to live with her sister for about 6 months, and
not surprisingly, the doors in the back were wide
open!
The family of the chowkidar has been utilizing
the entire library building as their personal
domain, having built a ‘pukka’ house for
themselves behind the library building and still
utilizing the majestically high ceilinged rooms
of the library to house their guests. Mrs. Lebon
complained that when she returned from Goa
once, she was shocked to see a large number
of people sleeping inside the library. When she
inquired from the chowkidar, he said that they
were his guests and they will leave in a day or two, though
he did not even apologize for abusing the trust placed in
him as the caretaker of the library. Food was being cooked
inside the library halls, endangering the valuable books
stored there.
Moving inside through the door, I found that the
chowkidar’s family had broken the glass panes of one of
the book case and dragged it out of the library hall, using it
as a cupboard for their personal use. Behind the cupboard,
I found a door that was supposed to be locked, but wasn’t.
The cupboard had been slid in front of the door to hide the
fact that the lock had been broken in. This door led us into
the main reading hall where the bookcases
were neatly arranged on three sides of the hall,
filled with rare books published in the 1800s
and early 1900s.
As I looked around, I found quite a few book
cases open and books missing from their place.
One cupboard, labeled ‘Fiction’ was completely
empty, all its precious and rare books stolen.
Finding the light insufficient to take pictures with my
cellphone I asked Mrs. Lebon if she could switch on the
lights, but she said that the electricity connection has
not been functional for the past few years and been
disconnected for non-payment of bills.
The main doors had evidently not been opened in
months as the doors were full of cobwebs. As per Mrs.
Lebon, the library currently has just one member - Mr.
Prem Agarwal who comes to the library sometimes and
reads the books here. But from the present state of the
library, with the furniture covered with a thick coating
of dust, it was clear that nobody has come inside the
library for several months and it wasn’t even being
cleaned by the caretaker. Pigeon droppings covered the
furniture and I found traces of termites in one of the
corners of the library, which is a serious concern as it
could destroy the books.
As per my discussion with Mrs. Lebon, the library has
suddenly lost its relevance to the young generation with the advent of the Internet as the school-going
kids who used to come to the library for project work, do not come any more. The older members have
either passed away or are probably too attached to the TV to bother going to the library. There has been
no book donation to the library in years and whatever periodicals are present there, are from a few
years back.
I promised to donate a part of my books to the library for the benefit of the readers, once we have
succeeded in restoring this heritage building to its former glory and brought back its lifeblood – the book
readers. As a first step, I have enrolled as the member of the library. The membership fee is very low –
Rs. 150 (which includes Rs. 100 caution money, Rs. 30 as a one-time fee and Rs. 20 as the first month’s
membership fee).
On my way out, I talked to the caretaker’s son and warned him that I will be visiting again with the
commissioner and other senior officials and I want the place cleaned up before his visit, leaving my
cellphone number with him. He assured me that he’ll ask his father to call me when he gets back from
the wedding.
MEASURES THAT NEED TO BE TAKEN TO RESTORE THE LIBRARY
IMMEDIATE TARGETS
1. The Library has an outstanding electricity bill of about Rs. 38000 and is attracting a non-payment
interest of Rs. 500 every month. The bill needs to be paid and that is not possible without an
immediate inflow of money from membership fees and the administration’s help.
2. The building needs extensive repairs to prevent the walls from caving in and the roof from
falling.
3. A permanent and ‘able’ caretaker is required to be posted in the library, alongwith an assistant
librarian who could either live on the premises or be available at the library during opening
hours as Mrs. Lebon is not able to walk the 2 km. distance from her home near hotel Yamuna
View to open the library regularly due to her age.
4. A Carpenter is required immediately to repair all the doors and windows to prevent further theft
of the precious books stored in the library.
5. A detailed catalog of all the books remaining in the library needs to be prepared.
6. The benefits of a library membership need to be promoted among the people so that more and
more people join the library as active members.
LONG-TERM GOALS
7. It may appear to be a heartless and unsympathetic view to some, but the large, extended family
living on the library premises needs to be moved from there as they are not serving their
purpose of taking care of the library and are in fact, endangering the very existence of the
building by the activities.
8. The library could be used as a resource center where scholars could come to research on
historical material, while the society could also hold events like quizzes and knowledge fairs in
the premises for the benefit of the local residents.
9. The pages of some of the rare books present in the library are almost crumbling to powder and
need to be preserved in a digital format and the originals sealed in a nitrogen-pack to prevent
further deterioration of the books. Book preservation experts could be contacted for their help.
10. A bank of computers (3-4) needs to be installed in the library for reading the digitally preserved
books and for taking printouts of the preserved pages at a nominal cost. The computers could
be donated to the library by the members who could receive membership benefits in return.
11. The money earned from renting the library grounds for the fireworks bazaar every diwali should
go in a fund setup for welfare of the library, instead of the administration.
12. The lawns outside the library need to be restored and taken care of.
top related