thanking p-set for calling us here and
for inviting us to be on the red dot
it’s a real honor to be here and share
my journey with everyone here and a
journey begins with a belief that
libraries can change lives one morning
at around 4 a.m. I sat in my car and
headed to a benign your district in
othor Pradesh I needn’t tell you how
notorious his district is where rape and
kidnapping is quite rampant but I am
house is a school that was started by my
grandfather in law in 1994 in an attempt
to do something for the school I was
heading towards but I am the RO Joni was
quite scary there were pockets of areas
in the road journey were which were
infested by dacoits there was absolutely
no sign of a toilet I dared to eat or
drink anything and after six hours of
this rollercoaster ride maneuvering
through potholes when I reach my dying I
thought you know the scariest part is
over but when I did look at the school
believe me the scariest part had just
begun five acres of land overgrown with
weeds and trees with six dilapidated
classrooms with 600 children packed in
them I knew that these children had
cycled 20 25 kilometers and come to
school that’s what they do every day and
a lot many of them had got up in the
morning done the household chores the
girls had cooked breakfast for the
family a lot of the girls came without
any breakfast because of gender
inequality and yet they were in school
and they were in school with an
expectation from education and I’m when
I looked at them the hair was nicely
oiled the uniforms are neat and ironed
and the eyes were beaming they were
beaming with an expectation and that
expectation was from education and
indirectly that expectation was from me
that day I’d called for a parent-teacher
meeting and when I enter the classroom
and saw the parents they were all men
women don’t least leave the villages
there were men there were farmers who
came in that boutique Ulta there were
the skins of all darkened from the Sun
and they were wearing dark glasses and
when I talked this dared when I asked
him questions there was silent and they
just stared and I know why they were
staring they were staring because it
said what’s the city girl doing here and
Medina district and why is she taking so
much interest in me ah words that’s what
she wants but no it couldn’t be both
she’s talking about her children and
then on top of it she’s talking about a
for the next few years I made an attempt
and I worked on the school’s
infrastructure it was completed with 21
classrooms the biggest toilet blocks
that the school could possibly have
science labs computer labs a huge
football field athletics areas manicured
gardens to welcome the children and a
lot more library to say the least but
yet when I looked at these children and
I interacted with them I felt about
these invisible signs on the walls I
said don’t laugh don’t play speak only
when you’re spoken to only follow the
instructions and memorize would have
given you and I just hooked me that wire
why is this happening and is it only in
my school or is it what is happening in
in the district and the neighboring
districts is this a norm so I started
visiting the other schools in our
district and the district’s nearby like
Pirelli is another district nearby and
when I visited these schools and the
authorities took me around and showed me
all the facilities I would ask them um
do you have a library and there was a
yes of course ma’am this was a library a
dilapidated cupboard locked with rusty
dusty books inside and when I asked him
to open they’ll say array hard I’ll get
a key and one rusty key would appear
they were
unlock the cupboard and when I would put
my hand in a pool or a book and I read
the titles it would lead management
science nature and me yoga agriculture
and when I looked at those primary
children there was no connection between
these books in those children and then I
would say but some of the books are new
yes ma’am
we don’t issue them they’re very
expensive nobody touches him I said do
you have any books for children yes
ma’am of course we have we have five
seven books these were the books that
they had for the children and I walked
into the classroom they saw these moist
walls with paint peeling off broken
deaths where instead of two people
children four children was sitting and
it just pain my heart and I because I
like interacting with children because I
loved you know I always want to interact
with them I said okay said a child in
the class who can read for me anything
from the textbook there was silence
nobody would move and then suddenly
there was a loud voice that said Ramesh
you read obviously Ramesh was the most
the best reader in class and I’m a solid
reading and when Tommy started reading
he was so soft his voice was so feeble
that I couldn’t hear him and how much
ever we coax him to read louder he
wouldn’t read louder and then I asked
him that um eh can you narrate what
you’ve read in your mother tongue and
there was silence and then the teacher
would say Terra you do that so Terra
would get up and she was not narrating
but what by what straight from a memory
and then I realized that these kids
either read or they memorize they do not
comprehend what they’re reading they
memorize a text to memorize a question
answers they go to the exams they get
their grades they please their parents
but what would be lazing today I read
everything I read I read signboards I
read papers investment papers bank
papers I read my my office papers
I read newspapers magazines today I’m
reading imagine if I did not have read
it would be such a huge humping handicap
who would employ me so what will be
raising with the schools that are
mushrooming up everywhere we were
raising uneducated literate in mass
scale we were creating unemployable and
literate in maskel we were taking a poor
man’s child for 12 years or more asking
him to pay for the education and then
giving him back on her back ends with
aborting I’m not employable I can either
go to the field to work with you because
I don’t like the son anymore nor can I
put the bread on the table and this
really pained me it pained me and it
Pierce me and I said what can I do and
then I said maybe my belief in libraries
maybe a library can be a solution maybe
alive we can be a catalyst and so I
decided to give the children these
beautiful freshly painted rooms within
their school as libraries where color
there would be smelling of joy and
brightness through color the they would
have carpet on the floor with bright
color carpets beanbags to sink in new
furniture low tables high Davis but new
furniture and the books the books would
be an open racks colorful books well
illustrated in open racks attractive for
the children where the children could
just go and access them the librarian he
would be sitting in one corner not
intrusive as a non-intrusive adult he
would only control the children from his
eyes not from his hands and not from his
voice the books would be curated they’ll
be selected carefully the very books
just with no text just pictures there
would be books with one line per page
the font really large which would be
easy to read with two lines per page
maybe four lines a page books on humor
on jokes on people and places far away
books on science on history and a
heritage books on jokes riddles poems
something that would attract the kids
make the kids just read and as I stood
outside the window of one of my
libraries I saw my dream coming true and
what see kids rushing to these book
cracks and they would pick up these
books and I will just read them they
would smile and read them they read for
five minutes
or then for half an hour they dead with
the day alone or they read with their
friends many times I saw children they
won’t even bother
to sit down they were just pick up a
book and even forget to sit down on
anyway they were just stand and read
when the library time was over there to
be shooed away
they had to be shooed away that go home
the library needs to be shut down and
many of the children wanted to carry the
books home the issued books took them
home some of these libraries have become
community libraries so after the school
shuts closes the community comes in and
borrows books we heard many stories
about this many people approached us to
open libraries in their schools and this
whole idea started spreading faster than
flu in the monsoons
the kind of stories that came back to us
like the story of Sakshi she’s a slow
learner and hated to come to school she
had to be pushed to school every day and
after the library when she could open
books with which are beautifully
illustrated with with very little text
the whole learning experience enhanced
for her when we when the children read
this series about gurajala was a naughty
halu and his mother keeps telling him
how he should watch less TV or put the
garbage in the in the in the in the in
the dustbin or he should respect his
elders in the parent-teacher meetings we
started hearing how the children’s
behavior changed we heard from principal
and headmaster that how the children had
started reading because gradually and
slowly they started reading more and
more the beautifully illustrated books
have them comprehend the text better and
with this confidence they could now
express themselves we’ve opened
libraries in cancer kids homes in
hospitals even when you’re in quarantine
you can borrow a book and take it in
your room and read when people are going
through cancer treatment these kids for
nine months are out of school they
borrow books and they take it in their
rooms to read now three years 250
libraries 40,000 children an uncountable
number of benefices from the community
because we can’t count them you know it
all sounds huge yeah but remember it all
started really small it started with one
person with one dream
and one belief that libraries can make a
difference libraries can change lives
and that’s my journey so far and thank
you for being so patient to hear it
thank you [Applause]