Lending libraries are slipping into oblivion, becoming a relic
Flipping through the pages of Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies and stumbling upon a stranger’s note nestled in between the pages really happens only when you’re browsing through a library — a hidden treasure chest. Even when lending libraries aren’t vast,
nding a copy of that book you were hunting for feels like you’re in a museum holding a valuable artefact.
However, romanticising only the charm of books while overlooking the fate of lending libraries would amount to disillusioning oneself. Boopathy, the proprietor of Maruthi Lending library at Anna Nagar, across from SBOA School & Junior College, says, “Income from my stationery store and ice cream sales has kept me aoat for a decade now. Otherwise, I would have closed the library long ago because it isn’t like the 1990s golden era of reading any more. It’s also not common for schools to make reading mandatory to cultivate creativity.”
Space for the contemporary
Strolling through Maruthi reveals a space for the contemporary, with fresh picks like R. F. Kuang’s Yellowface catching the eye. When asked about why she prefers visiting the library after school, Lekhashree, who was immersed in the classics section, smiled ear to ear and spoke about how there’s nothing like the thrill of wandering around the library cluelessly and returning home with a bag full of discoveries.
Boopathy smirked when asked about conducting quizzes and reading sessions to improve the footfall. “How do we conduct events when only a handful step in each month? There was once 10,000 readers with me, but now library books are called outdated. A couple of them asked me to cancel their membership when I told them to return the books on time. At this point, my sole wish is that Maruthi shouldn’t close down.”
With so much transformation on Chennai streets — new bubble tea shops, and hangout spots— the old is history—like Eloor, the leading lending library is no longer operational in Chennai today. Shreya, the author of The Worlds Within You, soaked in the nostalgia of Eloor, which she used to frequent back in 2008, “I miss the chance to discover new books without worrying about purchase or ownership, which is a joy that’s lost now. I remember nding random books like Mates, Dates, and Tempting Trouble by Cathy Hopkins in their young adult shelf and then reading the whole series, and that was the beauty of their stock and their discovery.” All library books wore wrappers and staples, bearing a custom library stamp inside each of them, and the struggle to pick the ones amid the towering mountains of books to take home, and perhaps the gleeful delight when the book you’ve been eyeing has been brought back by someone — undeniably, many of these scenes belong to the past, with only fragments lingering in the distant, present day.
The few lending libraries su er because it is not common for schools to make reading mandatory