A world of books

Tall wooden shelves lined with old books; green stained glass windows; the quietest of halls and heads buried deep inside a labyrinth of words. Standing tall along Cowley Brown Road, the District Central Library is a whole world in itself.

The building was inaugurated in 1987, and the tranquillity inside is disarming – the moment you step in, the buzz of the city recedes.

The reference section is the first to welcome you. Lined with long wooden tables and shelves it has hundreds of books on subjects such as engineering, technology, history, geography, agriculture, law, sociology, biography, religion, etc.

Walking with eyes full of wonder, I pull out a chunky volume of Bharathidasan Padalgal. The book contains a foreword written in 1993 by V. R. Nedunchezhiyan, the then finance minister of Tamil Nadu. Next to it is an unassuming book with a worn out spine. This little book is a treasure – published in 1988, it's a dictionary for the language of the Siddhas. The ‘Descriptive catalogue of the Tamil manuscripts in the Tanjore Maharaja Sarfoji's Saraswathi Mahal library' by L.Olaganatha Pillay is yet another treasure. With yellowing pages, this book bears the scent of history and culture.

Full report here Hindu