BANGALORE: Though most localities in the city have public libraries, the little home-run circulating libraries are more personal and informal and their owners don’t sport the grumpiness generally associated with those manning public libraries. Though it’s been the end of a chapter for some popular neighbourhood libraries, a few of them still exist in some parts of the city.The librarian in these one-man establishments, of course, not only knew most customers by name, but also their reading habits. He obliged by reserving books on request by the customers. Westerns, best sellers like James Hadley Chase and Alistair McLean besides Photo Romance, Mills & Boons and Archie comics that government libraries didn’t stock, were the most borrowed books here.They were usually small garages turned libraries or little shops which hoarded books with scant attention to cataloging. Hence, one wouldn’t be surprised to find Dickens leaning comfortably against an Archie on the dusty shelves. Despite the chaos, the librarians and regulars of course knew where exactly each book lay.These neighbourhood circulating libraries, which generally operated only in the evenings, were not just sources of interesting reading material but served as venues for the neighbours to mingle. Customers exchanged pleasantries and gossip as they dropped by to borrow books and periodicals.The day’s cricket match, the latest political crisis, a local issue or the weather are debated at great length and with great spirit.Presently, a teenage boy enters with an eager expression on his face. He eyes a copy of Photo Romance, but he dare not pick it up, for, his elderly neighbour is lurking around near the librarian’s table. As the youngster shuffles about near the shelves, pretending to look for a Louis L’Amour, he watches in dismay as the elderly neighbour unabashedly exchanges his political weekly for the very issue of Photo Romance he had wished to borrow.Yet another dandy young lad makes religious trips to the library from afar every week. Not because he is a voracious reader but because his crush comes there every week.A little later, a housewife walks in looking for that elusive women’s weekly, whose cover announces a chutney special from pages 17 to 24. Having finally laid her hands on it, she leaves gleefully, waiting to try out the new recipes. However, she’s back in less that 15 minutes, for, to her horror, after page 16, the next page in the magazine is 25, with the intervening pages either worn out from much flipping or just torn out.Over time, with newer members showing scant respect for books and the habit of reading dying out, most circulating libraries swapped books for audio cassettes, then video cassettes and finally CDs and DVDs. Most others just folded up, with their books ending up with pavement books sellers, their seals still intact.[email protected]
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