Edge over others
A community library in Cheriyala village in Telangana’s Siddipet district has been instrumental in converting a 12-year-old boy’s habit of reading into a passion. At 47, air force veteran Satyanand Vallapragada, currently working at Googee Properties, is promoting reading in Karkhana, Secunderabad through his Date A Book The Library (earlier Just Books) and reading room. The library has around 12,000 books ranging from biographies to fiction, mostly in English, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada and Marathi
The first thing that Satyanand did after returning to Hyderabad from Delhi in 2017 was to enrol at Just Books library near his house to nurture his reading habit and inculcate it in his children. After two years, he heard that it was shutting down and being sold for ₹8 lakh. “I wanted to buy it, but the amount was too big, so I didn’t go forward. They delinked the franchise model, made it an independent library and got back to me with a cost of ₹4 lakh; I went ahead and I looked at it as a self-sustainable model,” he adds. Satyanand’s wife, Praveena, and Guduru Akhil, a student studying for the UPSC, help in managing the library.
Satyanand Vallapragada of Date A Book Library | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
The 1,600-square feet library was renamed Date A Book and relaunched on October 2, 2019. The library (₹1,100 for a three-month membership) has a small space that is rented out at ₹1,200 per month for youngsters preparing for competitive examinations.
With 150 members, the library survived the pandemic and lockdowns with its rent, read-and-return model. Satyanand cites his own example for visiting students. “I tell them how I have an edge over others because of my reading; it has helped me improve my language, personality, attitude and helps me understand others’ perceptions.”
Make people value books
Varsha Ramesh of BnM Preschool & Books n More, Library and Activity Centre | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
BnM Preschool & Books n More, Library and Activity Centre (earlier Books n More) has been popular among book lovers, especially children, for 11 years now. Its founder Varsha Ramesh, who had access to four libraries while growing up in Chennai, missed those reading spaces for her children in Hyderabad. When her collection of 5,000 books kept increasing with her children’s books, she opened a space for book lovers, especially children in West Marredpally in 2011. The membership fee has always been only ₹100. “The focus is to make people value books not make a profit; when the books are damaged, the borrower has to pay a fine so that they learn to respect books.”
The library was earlier housed in a 1,000-sqft space that buzzed with workshops and activities during summer. Although around 400 youngsters are active library users, December to February is a lean period, points out Varsha. With a few online deliveries (₹250 for 10 deliveries), the library has a minimum of around 100 borrowers a day. The library’s collection has grown rapidly in the last five years and now boasts of around 25,000 books including 3,000 books for adults in English, Hindi and Telugu.
BnM Preschool & Books n More, Library and Activity Centre | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
The library’s Jumbo Plan, started 10 years ago, has had more than 900 families availing themselves of it. The plan, Varsha says, is to make families come together to read.
The library moved to East Marredpally in January 2020. With an all-women staff, a team of five helps Varsha manage the 1,500 sq ft set-up that hosts a pre-school in the day and a library in the evening.
Bond with books
Grow With Books | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
The idea for Grow With Books, a Hyderabad-based children’s library (originally TheStoryShop) in Nallagandla came during the pandemic. Its founder Manjula Rani, a technical manager in an IT company was passionate about doing something for children in the education field. “I tried to inculcate the reading habit in my daughter for six years. I didn’t know the importance of reading in the initial years,” says Manjula, who observed the difference when she began to read to her sister’s daughter.
Manjula Rani | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
“Parents, especially of younger kids, were struggling to keep their children occupied at home during COVID; I felt like starting a space that helped them forge a lifelong bond,” she says.
With a collection of around 2500 books in English , Grow With Books caters to readers across India including Hyderabad.
Attached to the 1200-sqft physical library is an additional space that hosts activities on weekends.
Draw for the young adults
“Six years and strong,” says Haripriya Bathula, who started The Book Shelf- Library and Learning Centre in DD Colony in 2016. Haripriya was fascinated with the community library system while studying M.Sc in Singapore and was amazed at the way children borrowed books in baskets.
Her family of a nephew and nieces helped her realise the importance of reading in the formative years, leading to her establishing a library for children. Initially, the four shelves of the library had 1,500 books. “I used to feel bad walking into it, as the collection was tiny when compared to the ones in Singapore.” Now the library has 10,000 books for children till 15 years of age. As Haripriya works as a student counsellor at Johnson Grammar school, Habsiguda, the library which she manages alone, is open only on Sundays, from 12 noon to 3pm and 4pmto 7 pm.
Haripriya Bathula | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
“I have made many nice young friends which wouldn’t have been possible otherwise,” she adds.
Sundays are busy with children — accompanied by their parents — arriving at the library. Haripriya rues, “Libraries should be close to one’s home in the neighbourhood where a child could walk in without a chaperone. We need more .reading spaces in the city.”
The way parents bargain when it comes to books annoys her. “The sad part is that parents don’t see the value in children reading books. This mindset has to change.”
Reaching out
A girl browses books at Just Books | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Hyderabad has many readers who have been supporting us for more than a decade, affirms Priya Suresh of Just Books, the online-based library rental service with a pan-India presence. With doorstep delivery of books, this online library runs from a 850-square feet space in a house in Kukatpally. t has been only two months that it has moved to a new address in the same locality. Unlike its earlier 1,100 square feet space, in a commercial complex, the present location has books stacked in almirahs in 850-square feet of an independent house. With two delivery boys and a manager, around 6,000 books — mostly in English and a few Telugu — are delivered across 15-20 kilometres around Kukkatpally.
Just Books has 10,000 members and Priya says that membership renewals see a rise during summer.
Separate online storytelling sessions (three per month), are held for adults and children. “We get many recommendations from young book lovers on the new books that we could add to the existing collection.”
Priya is glad children are switching to physical books over only e-books. “We receive emails from parents on why they prefer their children reading physical books rather than on a screen; it is a boost for us to build the network, conduct offline reading sessions and help more people to get back to reading..”
