Books for 'At Least One Library'
I come from a middle-class teacher's family. In my family, as with many other families of teachers, books and knowledge were considered to be more important than money
In our village, I still remember the way people respected my grandfather. He was certainly not the richest man. He used to sit in front of our house, on a mat below a shady banyan tree. He always held a book in his hand. In the evening people would come to him for his advice. Even the richest man, when passing by, would greet him respectfully.I asked him once.
'Why should the teacher be respected?'
He smiled and told me a story. 'It seems, some friends of Arjuna, the mighty warrior in Mahabharata, asked him why he gave so much of respect to his teacher Dronacharya. Drona was old, not as rich as Arjuna, and never ruled any kingdom. But Arjuna would always sit at his feet respectfully. When asked why, it seems Arjuna replied, "In this life everything perishes over a period of time. Whether it be diamond, beauty, gold or even land. Only one thing withstands this destruction. It is knowledge. The more you give the more you get." A teacher gives knowledge to students and I consider him the richest person. That is the reason a teacher is respected; not for his riches but because he is the source of knowledge.'
As a child, the first expedition I ever made outside my home was to the village library building with my grandfather. The library was situated in a small two-storied structure. There was a shop on the ground floor and on the first floor was the library. A big banyan tree stood next to the building. There was a cement platform under it. In Kannada we call it katte. In the evening, all the elders of the village would sit here. My grandfather was one of them. I would accompany him and he would go and sit on the platform after dropping me at the first floor.
It was the first of the many libraries I was to enter. There were cupboards with glass panes so that one could read the titles of the books easily. Newspapers and weeklies were piled up neatly. Tables and chairs were laid for people to sit and read. There was absolute silence. I started reading children's books there and used to be absorbed in them until my grandfather would call me to go home.
Years passed and I became a girl of twelve years. By that time, I had finished reading almost all the books in that little village library. At times I used to feel bored going to the library as there were not many new books. But still I accompanied my old grandfather to the banyan tree.
One such evening, we were coming back after our outing. I was feeling particularly bored with the library that day. It was dark and the streetlights were blinking. My grandfather could not see too well so I was leading him by his hand.
Suddenly he asked me, 'I will recite half a poem, will you complete it? This is a well-known poem.'
I said I would try. We often played this game and I had learnt many poems like this. He said, 'If I have wings …'
I immediately answered without blinking my eyes, 'I will go to the neighbouring village library and read many more books.'
My grandfather stopped in surprise. He said, 'Will you repeat it?' I repeated, 'I will go to the neighbouring village library and read many more books.'
He laughed and said, 'What an unusual way to complete the poem! Do you know what the original poem is?'
'Yes, I know.
'If I have wings
I will fly in the vast blue sky
I will see beautiful places
I will meet great people
I will search for hidden treasures.'
My grandfather kept quiet. When we reached home he sat down on a mat and called me. He was tired but looked very happy. He took my little hand into his and said, 'Do you know, there was a great man called Andrew Carnegie in USA. He was a billionaire who lived a century back. He willed all his wealth not to his children, but to build library buildings in as many villages as possible. I have not seen America, but it seems any library you see in any village was invariably built using Andrew Carnegie's money.
'I do not know how long I will live, but today I realized how much you love books from the way you completed the poem. Promise me, when you grow up, if you have more money than you need, you will buy books for at least one library.'
It was a cold winter night. I still remember the warmth of his large hand in mine. He was old, and his hands had become hard and wrinkled writing thousands of lines on the blackboard with chalk every day. We were not rich like Carnegie, but certainly my grandfather had the richness of experience and knowledge.
Later in my life, I became well off. I remembered my promise of buying books for a library. Today, through Infosys Foundation, we have given books to ten thousand such libraries.