It was not difficult for them to perceive the importance of reviving reading habits among children, particularly at a moment when the young and the old were gripped by hopelessness or had become victims of unprecedented levels of screen time.įor them, providing books (ranging from academic books to fiction, dictionaries, classics and comics) to those who lagged behind due to internet inaccessibility and poverty and those who needed to be weaned from the virtual world, and its often poor content, was the easiest option. When sights of death and of thousands walking home were troubling us and the sudden school closures led to a shift to online modes of learning, jeopardising the education of thousands of disadvantaged children, Kalidasbabu and his elder son, Kingshuk (then a Class 9 student), were determined to reach out to those in distress. The brief conversation that I had with him revealed the extraordinary zeal of an otherwise ordinary high school teacher, steadfast in his promise to keep the concept of the library relevant and the value of books alive among children across class, in a technology-driven world. He had just returned from Madhukhali in the Sundarbans, after conducting a theatre workshop for children. It was on a humid summer evening that I happened to meet Kalidas Halder, the founder, outside his dimly-lit library.
Seeing my child running to PSL almost twice a week, I realised the potential of a street library and the kind of enthusiasm a free library can instil in a child. It was during our visit to the city this summer that I got curious, when my septuagenarian father, a regular visitor to the library, introduced my child to its collection. Though I had read on social media about Patuli Street Library, I had no inkling of the extent of work PSL has been engaging in. Its location makes it so inconspicuous that it can be mistaken for another wayside stall until one notices an old refrigerator stacked with books – which in itself is almost a leaf out of fiction. Hidden amidst a row of makeshift shops on the margins of the pavement which borders a residential complex, a technology and management institute and a park, this library is one of its kind in the city. “The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library” stands true for Patuli Street Library (PSL) at Patuli, Kolkata.
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