Remember the feeling when you run nimble fingers over a wrapped package? Recall the anticipatory curiosity coursing through you as the wrapper comes off to unveil the item it so teasingly encloses. Yes. Exactly. It was with those very feelings, except in a more heightened state, that I made enquiries on the whereabouts of the school library after I started eleventh grade in Xxxx Higher. (The name of the school has been withheld for obvious reasons) Surely, such a school as this, the one I had admitted myself into, would be the proud possessor of an enviable library! Imagine my utter dismay on being made known of its absence.
A great room of stately stacked books, the perceptible smell of its tantalizing prints, the affecting aura of extensive knowledge, and not forgetting, the stern librarian who promoted silence through her glares……went right out the window.
The weight of my disillusionment knew no bounds. Didn’t the prospectus’ mentioning of a library fee mean there was a library? Indignation and bitter rants were all I could exercise. End of the library dream.
I’m currently in pursuance of a B.A. degree but I still think upon this memory of a tragic loss- the absence of a library in my higher secondary years. There was something I could have probably done to rectify that loss, like, some sort of effort on my part. The only thing keeping me from self-berating is the fact that toward the latter year, the school promised to provide a library as soon as it possibly could.
The college I study in has, thankfully, a library. There’s a ‘but’, though. The library is, in kind words, a poor library. It barely meets the requirements to be called so. Checking it out for the first time, I very nearly experienced a déjà vu of disillusionment.
Perhaps my visualization of a library was too grand a scale? Too much for reality? Well, at least there was a library.
Putting aside this sad experience, I now only wish. I wish for a public library- overcrowded with books and information from around the world over. Or…there’s this option of setting up a personal library. Unfortunately, I hold no six-figure salary to my account. So the option doesn’t count much for me. However, I must remind myself that the future holds unimaginable surprises. I shall endeavor to remain ever hopeful. For now, whatever scanty resources I’m made available to, shall be greatly exploited. And with gritted teeth, will I spend small fortunes on books. Until then, do not waver, fellow book-lovers and readers. Hold on to your books, e-books and diet libraries, for one day, we shall see….what I like to call- the Dream Library.
-A book-loving student
