tata library

It is rare to find public libraries in India. The general perception of the word public library would refer to an image of a dilapidated old monumental building which is approaching its due date of restoration. The insides of that building would contain dusted and musty interiors in which piles of non-interesting books would be piled up. The books would mostly be about uninteresting topics like Hindi sahitya or on the long ago happened freedom fight of our country or any other country of the World. "So uncool" I tell you!!


In India I  have never really heard from anyone referring to a public library as a place to visit for leisure. Whereas such concept is widely common in developed nations that I visited.

I remember spending most of my time in the public library in Orange County when I was on a one month visit to L.A. It was just a spectacular experience. Since, I was not a local, I could not take any books to home and read, but I was allowed to visit and read books there for as long as I wished . So, it was a pretty good deal, in fact much better than a deal in real and financial sense. That was because the folks there did not ask me for any payment. It was the library of the State and was a service provided to the inhabitants there. Revelation of that facility indeed shocked me. Even more shocking was the ambiance and the profile of the library. It was way way more technical and advanced than the paid and expensive public library in my place. In fact not even my place since I live in Vadodara, and in those days (5) years back I was not aware of any public library in my city. So, I had enrolled in the British Library at Mumbai. I used to visit there once in a month and would loan 2 books which I would promptly give back to them when I was done reading them within that time frame.

Though a little cumbersome an experience of traveling to Mumbai, then traveling within Mumbai (from Andheri to Mittal Towers, Nariman Point) was; but the pleasure of experiencing a reading resource a little similar to the public library in U.S.A was a very enriching one. Every month I would look forward to my library trip and then I would connect my eyes to the pages of a book and my imagination to the Brobdingnagian scope of things that only words within an elements of a book could provide.


That beautiful relationship of mine with books continued for 3 years. Then sadly the British library shut down its brick-and-mortar model and instead got into the mode of business which actually got them into closing down.

With the advent of e-commerce, the process of ordering books online went into a big way with Amazon.com.Though Amazon is universal, but local clones of it also garnered a good business in their respective locations. For an instance, our very own Flipkart; which does excelling job in the Indian scenario.

Though it is not backed with research, but I feel this growing e-commerce in the business of books must have led to the shutting down of the physical form of my British library. Though the library services are still on in the metro and semi-metro cities where the British Council is present, but I am affected in a big way. That is because one needs to have a physical address in a city like for me Ahmedabad or Mumbai which are close-by to avail the library services. Now the books ordered get delivered and also picked up when the due date arrives at the member's house itself. But without a physical presence in both these cities, things got pretty sad for me. Although, the library later came up with a complete online version for people like me who do not live in such few cities, but what they offer is only the online versions. Well that is something, I am not personally comfortable with. Well, itne bhi bure din nahi aye abhi....


I then moved on to the online book stores and also the brick-and-mortar stores available in my city like the Crosswords and Landmark. They are good, but the only issue is ME. I got so overboard with my purchases that my house started looking like one mini-library. I have one room dedicated to books apart from a completely full spacious Victorian book shelf already installed in the living room.Though at times I have even hidden some in my kitchen shelf too; so that my husband does not get to know any updates on my booksie fetish.

kitchen-library

The successful web commerce not only managed to wipe out the physical presence of the British Library, but I am sad to update that it also took away the brick-and-mortar form of the Landmark Book store in Vadodara. It recently shut down in my city and some apparel store has come up in its place. LOL


I confess of being an online shopper for books myself, but that Landmark store was not that bad. It was good in terms of the realistic discounts that it often came up with. I mostly baited on their 3 for 2 offers, which technically turned out to be a full 33% discount, assuming that I bought all 3 for the similar price.
Hence, another shut down story for books and book lovers like me. But there is some twist here.

Although I feel remorse, but it does not affect me much. That is because about an year back, I did something really smart. I enrolled up at the university library, Hansa Mehta of the M.S. University of Vadodara.

I took an appointment with the esteemed Dean of the faculty and he helped me out by letting me use the services as a corporate member. Although I look like any of those college students that hover in the library, but being in my early 30s, I obviously cannot be one to use the library for free like them.

I pay 1 grand annually for my fascination, but I tell you it is worth much more than that. Though the exteriors and interiors of the grand library look much like the ones I described above; but the contents are way way more. It includes a lot of books on which I have already spent a fortune on; like the ones of Tehrima Durrani and Ohran Pamuk.Of course, I regretted when I saw those obscure and expensive books in the university library.

Regrets like these pinch less when I get to read the The Satanic Verses from the same library. Yes, the very controversial and almost unavailable one; which for an update is banned for sale in the Indian sub-continent for sure. LOL. I have attached the snapshot from the flipkart search, which proves my point.


So surely, the next time if you hear the word public library, do not think of the word uncool at the same time. You never know it might have a book which could be worth a lot in the web world.

P.S: It also has all the series of commonly available fiction for the rookie readers - Chetan Bhagat ones.

no-satanic-verses-online

 

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Amazed and Surprised

There are few moments in one's life when one is totally taken aback. One could be doing some activity regularly for many years, but suddenly that usual monotonous activity might turn out totally amazing one day. The experience of experiencing that activity, that very day, might turn out to be an experience, that one must not have experienced ever before. One such event happened with me yesterday. It was a visit to my tailor. I visit him twice in a year. So, this one can be counted as the first path breaking event of this ongoing year.

That day I gave him about 5 sets of clothes to get stitched and altered. Everything was going as usual. I greeted him, he greeted me back. He started inspecting the clothes, started making notes on his small tattered note-pad. He was meticulously going through the procedure of understanding the designs, then drawing each of the visualized patterns on a separate note; then finally sticking each note to the respective piece of cloth, the way he always did. He then told me that he will do all the 5 pieces in a week's time. That statement from him made me realize that the task was completed and so I prepared to leave from there, and hence I started gathering my design books, which I had brought with me for the designs. But as soon as I started to leave, he asked me to wait for a moment.

"Can you just wait for a moment".
"Yes, sure, what happened??"

amazed-and-surprised

"If you do not mind, can I tell you something.."

Giving you a little break with the background story, my tailor's name is Iqbal bhai. He is in his mid-fifties and is a poor man. His sewing kiosk is even smaller than the size of my bathroom. Luckily, he is alive and is still in business cause his shop  once got destroyed in the communal riots that had hit the city about 11 years ago. Though it was a Hindu mob who destroyed his low-end boutique, but it was again his Hindu neighbours who helped him get this new place which I now visit. By the way his shop is exactly opposite a Hanuman temple.

I have known him for about 12 years now, since the time I was in college. Going to him back then in those days was a necessity, since those days I could not afford to wear the ready-made clothes, nor could I afford the price of the heavy boutiques. So back in those days, I would get kurtis stitched from him for a mere 30 INR. Today, I even do not know what amount he charges, I just pay him the final amount that he asks for, though I add 50 INR extra as a service tip. Though after my graduation I went to study in Pune, after that worked in Mumbai for a high profile movie distribution firm, but I always kept going back to Iqbal bhai for getting apparels stitched. Though I went to many expensive tailors and high-end boutique owners in-between.  But due to some personal heart-felt connection with him I kept going back to him. I think it has to with his simplicity, humanity or the plain fact that he follows my commands/suggestions to the T, whatever it is, for him I have abandoned all the stitch makers that I know, and I go to him only all the time.

I just have to carry a picture of the dress, or the dress itself that I want to be made or replicated, either wise; and he would make the exact dress or its perfect replica. He is a poor illiterate man, but his wisdom is phenomenal. I find him more sensible than the french manicured, accent driven glamorous boutique runners.

Ok, so coming back to the incident yesterday. The instant feeling that crossed me when Iqbal asked me to wait was that probably he was in dire financial states, and wanted some credit. I was absolutely fine in lending him about 5000 INR, so I promptly told him to go ahead with whatever he wanted to tell/ask me.

He then asked me to enter inside his dingy kiosk, which again I did. He then dropped half of the make shift shutter of the kiosk, which was made out of a torn dupatta. When I saw him doing that activity of loosenign the drapes, I grew a little nervous. Then he came close to me and said something to which I was never prepared.

now-get-more-amazed-and-surprised

He told me that I had inflated a lot in the past 6 months. Though I may not have been able to acknowledge the difference, but since he measured me regularly, so he could analyze that.

"Aditi behn it is not good you know. There is a proper 2 inch of a difference in your size from all over. Please take a note of it and control it, else it will take no time to expand much more. Do not mind, but I have seen a lot of women going through this. You are like a family to me, so I told you. No body likes fat people, lest women it gets worse."

I was indeed shocked to hear the advancements of my physical self from him. I always had a naive image of him in my mind. At another time long back I took one of my tube top to get altered, and he was wondering why I wanted to wear a kid-sized SKIRT...All such and many more of such incidents hazed the real wisdom of the man and yes he seems to have wonderful "PREDICTION POWERS" as well.

I then thanked him for being so thoughtful and concerned for me. I told him that I would take care of it and have started cycling indeed. Also, thanked him for drawing the veil so that no one else hears our sensitive conversation (as if someone hearing would have effected me). I then hurriedly gathered all the magazines that I was carrying and left the place.

Coming back to my husband I narrated the entire incident, and told him how lucky I was indeed. Even the poor tailor that I know was so concerned for me.

He heard my entire story with attention and then suggested me to play basket ball!!!!!

P.S: I have attached 2 pictures, I need not say anything, you guys can decode it. By the way, I will be gifting a note-pad to Iqbal bhai when I visit him next. That would be a thankful gesture to his concern for me.

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real funny events from my life - V

Never knew that the posts in this series will lead till this one. This one is not so funny, but if one had witnessed in real, I am sure it would have made at least 2 people laugh. So, this was long ago when I was about to meet my sister-in-law at the time of my marriage. She stays in the U.S.A and visits India once in 2 years. At the time of my marriage, it was going to be the actual meeting time with her, cause before that we met just once and that too for very short duration. And also because before that there was nothing really official between me and him, so I did not really make a sincere effort in being friendly or making an attempt to know her more.

So, she came for the marriage and got a lot of stuff like clothes and accessories for me. Most of the stuff was the daily wear like western clothes that I wear normally, but there was one Indian wear that really intrigued me. It was a lovely sari in bottle green colour made of a material which seemed like the plastic white coloured sheet that is commonly used as a  packaging material. She told me that the material was in vogue then, well that did not matter much to me, as I did like the sari because of its plain colour. She told me that she got that one because her brother who happens to be my husband had told her that I am fond of plain simple saris, practically in all colours possible, and since I did not have that particular colour in the collection, so he had asked his sister to get that one. How sweet... 

Sweetness of sister-in-law was also personified when she told me that she also got the blouse stitched for the same for me. But I was totally perplexed looking at this other piece of the gift. It was a blouse in the same colour, but was sleeveless (that part was fine), but it was completely shut from the back!! First glance at it made me recall all the middle aged female Parsi  stereotypes from the films and television. I was really taken aback seeing the blouse, but I did not complain to her since I had mentally figured up to get a different one stitched for the beautiful sari since blouse does not matter much. But the matter did not end there, I was curious to know why she got such one stitched, guessing if it was some rage in her country. Or may be there was some tradition in the family to wear blouses like Parsis, although  Jatts from Punjab are no way close to the latter :) So, after the wedding settled down after a week, I asked her the same.

Her reply to my question was something I was just not prepared for. She told me that she was told by my husband, that this is what my style was, and I liked it that way. And my reaction was "what the f.....k? Since when I started having that old-fashioned sense of dressing.I wear sleeveless, half-sleeves, mega sleeves, backless, blouses with just a strap that look more like a bra or even the full sleeved ones, but then they are transparent to make up for the full sleeves". But there was no point explaining to her since she did what she was told by my dear dear husband. I straight away went to him and asked him for an explanation. I did not ask, but shouted at him for an explanation. Shouting may seem very weird within a week of marriage, but marriage was like an unnecessary evil between us, cause we had been with each other for 5 years before that. Well that reminds me that today it has been 12 years of practically jheloing each other, OMG. Any ways so my dear dear husband's reply was: "I have overheard your conversations with your tailor. You always stress upon SLEEVELESS and COMPLETELY SHUT from back".

Once when my rage had settled down, I could then relate to what he replied. He actually never overheard my entire conversations with the darji,  those instructions were always for the kurtis that I wore for my work everyday.  I then laughed and explained to him that sleeveless and completely shut from back is needed for the warm and sunny climate of Mumbai where I worked. It is required all the more so that I can save my back from getting tanned everyday and then I could nicely flaunt it while wearing a sari; but for that I need to wear completely shut from back kurtis everyday to work. And if any one of you is wondering about the tanning of arms, then please note that I carry a dupatta as well. LOL

That very moment I was feeling so frustrated, but felt real love for him from inside afterwards. (The phenomenon which is prevalent till today).That was so sweet of him to gift me something that he thought was of my preference, but half-overhearing made all the difference. I also wondered if at all he did not hear things properly, but at least he has seen me, his wife a lot. But then, which husband in this World looks at his wife??

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