Keeping his brothers very noble dream alive
Keeping his brothers very noble dream alive
Rakesh is fired by the unfinished dream of his elder brother Rajeev, who died three years ago, to set up a library...

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After looking around unsuccessfully for a little space to start a library for children in Chenkalchoola colony, a handicapped young auto driver, Rakesh, is nailing together an asbestos shed in the fraction of a space between the back of a building block and the walkway through the colony. The library, now in its most rudimentary form, stands over a slabbed drain and is gassed from the sides by smoke from the kitchens outside."Show me another place in the colony where I can put up a library? No one was willing to give us space on rent. There is no ‘puramboke’ land either. Every inch inside this colony has been gobbled up,’’ Rakesh says. The only option left to him is to put the cramped space to maximum use. He will block out the smoke by covering the gaps with discarded wood pieces. As for the drain, Rakesh says he will cover the floor with mud from outside and then apply concrete. He has already managed to squeeze in a rickety book rack inside the shed.Rakesh is fired by the unfinished dream of his elder brother who died three years ago. In October 2006, Rakesh’s brother Rajeev, a state hockey player, had set up the Rajajinagar Reading Library (RRL). The Library functioned in a rented flat on the first floor of one of the concrete Baker-model structures within the colony. It had a spacious reading room, a computer room and a tiled open space for children to play or watch television. A month after it began functioning, over 100 families in the colony sent their children to the library after school hours.A foreign couple Rob and Sara Marvin had helped Rajeev organise the library. The Rotary Club was also a major sponsor. "Rajeev always kept the place clean and he tied ropes around the parapet so as to give the children who play on the verandah more security. Parents even began forcing their children to go to the library after school,’’ Rakesh said. Suddenly, five months after he opened the library, Rajeev died of chicken pox. "The last thing he told our Amma was to make sure that the library was kept clean for the children,’’ Rakesh said. He is desperate to keep his elder brother’s dream alive. And now, generous help has come his way. Dr Shantha of Sathya Sai City Samithi, after coming across a City Express article on the library, met Rakesh and extended help. Dr Shantha is aware of the space constraints."But something is better than nothing,’’ she says. Besides providing books free to the library, Dr Shantha also plans awareness classes and medical camps at the new library which will be inaugurated in a week’s time. "The library is not just for the kids in our colony. There are a number of youngsters here, between the age of 15 and 17, who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. We want to do something about it,’’ Rakesh said.And the colony, too, seems to badly want a library. A colony resident who carried the asbestos sheets for the library in his mini auto, for instance, refused to take money for the service. "He asked me to consider the amount as his contribution to the library. He told me that a library would be the best thing to happen to the colony,’’ Rakesh said.

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