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.