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More precious than all wealth:
Books on the move
A 70 year old farmer waits by the roadside for the arrival of a
three-wheel taxi. He is waiting for the next trip around the world.
Perhaps once again to visit the land of the Buddha, or to learn about
meditation. He always comes early, for fear that he would miss the taxi.
Sometimes the taxi is late, but he does not mind. He has the patience
and all the time in the world.
The taxi arrives. On the windscreen is a sticker, saying Kiyawana
Gunaya. Nalaka is the young man inside the taxi, sitting amidst a heap
of books. This is the Mobile library started by Renton De Alwis at
Kiuala, a small village just beyond Hungama. Within a few months of the
launch, the library boasts of a membership of around 250. The youngest
member is Pathum Nimsara, a 7 year old child, and the oldest is
Samarasekara who is 70 years old, and still keen about his reading
material. He prefers to read books on Buddhism. Almost everyone in the
village have become members. I met students, teachers, farmers,
fishermen, traders and housewives at the meeting held at the Kiula
temple.
Funds
Soon the members gather around the taxi, to return the books they
have finished reading and to borrow new books. Most in demand are books
on Buddhism. Then come popular novels. There are over 600 books in the
library. Some have been purchased by Renton with his own funds, and
others have been gifted by his friends. But the most important ones are
the books gifted by the Kiula villagers themselves, breaking the
tradition of keeping ones own books safely locked up in a cupboard. They
have realized the need to share their knowledge and information with
their brethren.
This is what we need, in every village, in every town, in our
country. We need our words put into action, even though the reading
month is over. Renton has proved that this is a project that is easy to
start. All that is needed is dedication. He has got the support of all
the three wheel drivers in the village, who take turns doing the rounds
on Saturday afternoons, with Nalaka and the Library on Wheels. The
drivers only receive the cost of fuel.
Library
Why are they doing it? Not for money, not for developing business
contacts. Not for becoming popular to be able to contest the next
elections. Not because they do not have anything else to do. But they
are doing it because they wanted to make some contribution for the
betterment of the people in their village. For the happiness they get
from this service, when they see a child enjoying a book he had borrowed
from this library, when a young girl writes a poem, inspired by what she
had read, when an old man learns about meditation.
Retirement
My mind goes back to my hometown, Galle, a half a century ago, when
we had an "old Bookstall" in the Fort, which was as good as a public
library. It was owned by an old Tamil who was later arrested and
deported for being a Kallathoni. He had a huge collection of books, and
he charged only five cents to 'read-and-return' a book. Then there was
the Galle Library, and Ms. Norah Roberts our librarian. My school, St.
Aloysius' College had one of the best collections in a school library,
including journals like the Readers' Digest, Punch, Illustrated London
News, National Geographic.
I was fortunate to be allowed the use of the Fr S G Perera Memorial
library with its wonderful collection on Sri Lanka History and Religion,
and the library of the Jesuit Fathers too.
The children in our villages are the less fortunate. Often their
school does not have a library, and sometimes, even when they have a
library, the books would be locked up in a cupboard, because the school
principal does not want to take the risk of losing any of the books. It
could delay his pension on retirement, if the education authorities
found books were missing from the library!
Poverty
We cannot expect the state to provide everything to the people. We
have to help ourselves too. Setting up a small library could be one. All
that is needed is for one person to make a contribution of a few books,
collect some from well wishers; those who do not mind sharing their
books with others.
It is believed if all the gold hoarded up in Indian homes could be
released, it could eradicate poverty in the whole world. The same way,
if all the books locked up in our homes could be released to small
libraries, we could enable our entire nation to have the books they wish
to read.
We could encourage the reading habit, we could bring the entire
universe to our children, we could have a nation of disciplined, well
learned, intelligent young men and women, who could be useful and
peaceful, the greatest wealth we could achieve.
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