The 100 Books Project Raises a Lot of Dust?!

Armed with a broom and duster Reena (our first volunteer) and I entered the library of HBP Indian School last week.  Located in the centre of Bangalore on Dharmaraja Koil road, HBP (a private aided school) is housed in a beautiful century old building with large windows, old fashioned stone floors, arches and columns. The school admits over three hundred children from the area surrounding Commercial Street and Kamaraj Road.

The 164 year old school (it was established in 1854) charges a nominal tuition fee and provides its students with uniforms, textbooks and the government supported ‘akshay-patra’ mid-day meal.  As the principal put it, ‘We have room for everything: a science lab, a playground, classrooms and a library but we can’t make the best use of our space because of limited finances.’

Indeed. The school has a library, a beautiful, well lit, well ventilated room with high ceilings and plenty of child-sized tables and benches  but most of its books are either outdated or lack relevance to the everyday world of the students.  Three tall teak cupboards on one side house rows of abridged versions of 19th century classics, stacks of mythology and folk tales, Time Life encyclopaedias and of course the obligatory ‘fables with morals’, all covered with a thick layer of dust.

Donated some time in the mid-twentieth century, many books in HBP’s library have become less and less relevant to 21st century children. Others which were donated more recently seem to have fallen into disuse since the school lacks funds to employ a librarian and teachers who are overburdened with preparation, teaching and assessment have little time to revamp the library. Nevertheless, on our request, two teachers identified over fifty books from their existing collection which  would appeal to their students.  A quick survey revealed that there was hardly any poetry, very few mysteries and absolutely no contemporary fantasy. (Note to self: Buy Harry Potter series!)

Setting aside the books that the teachers had selected, Reena and I decided to organise the rest of the library  before making our donation: cleaning, dusting, sorting, labelling and weeding out outdated material. The following day Anamma, the school’s cleaner (also its bell mistress and lunch lady), dropped by to help out.

Soon a few curious kids popped in. ‘Did you find any adventure books, Miss?’ ; ‘Comics, Miss?’ Prodded by the principal, other students began to visit.  The afternoon bell rang and two ten-year-olds, Sheetal and Vijaylakshmi, came in to read while they waited for their parents to pick them up. A few minutes later Vijaylakshmi’s little brother joined us – ‘to clean,’ he insisted, not to read. But after some vigorous (if ineffective) cleaning he settled down next to his sister and opened a book.

And just like that, on a warm, quiet Saturday afternoon, an old, old library that was not dead, only sleeping, stretched, turned over on its side, opened one eye and began to wake up.

Keep an eye out for the launch of our reading programme.