Sushama Kumari sits on a chair on the corner of a small library-cum-reading room. She is preparing the list of new books to be purchased this year. She is in charge of a library that played a pivotal role in moulding the reading habit of a generation in the first settlement area of Upputhara in the High Range of Idukki district.
The library with over 4,000 titles, most of them in Malayalam, was once a learning centre for the students and local people. It was at a time when the mode of communication was at a very primitive stage. Though, there were modern communication facilities set up by the Britishers in the nearby tea plantations dotting the Peerumedu landscape, Upputhara was devoid of them except for this library.
Ms. Sushama Kumari, working for over two decades there, says that students from the Government College, Kattappana, the only institution for higher studies in the High Range had reached the library to prepare notes. It was evident from the large collection of early Malayalam writers like Thunchathu Ezhuthachan to the last generation of the serious writers.
Some translations of Leo Tolstoy and Russian writers are still in its collections of the dog-eared books. She says that the library which was active after 1960s slowly faded in with other libraries gaining prominence in adjoining grama panchayats and fast changes that shook the mode of communication. However, reading does not completely disappear, she says. There are nearly 350 members now in the library.
The memberships peaked at a time and there were occasions when the members confined in preferring a
particular section of books ranging from fiction, short stories, mythological stories and books on general information. It was a trend usually short-lived, she says adding that writers like O.V. Vijayam, Mukundan, M.T. Vasudevan Nair among others are always preferred by the readers there.
The young generation also searches for new-age books which she is aware only when asked for, she says. Since the library had moved to the second floor of the panchayat building from the ground floor there is
a considerable fall in the number of visitors. She says that old age people complain of their difficulty in ascending the steps to the second floor. “They are the real energy of the library. Unlike other libraries senior citizens formed a major chunk of readers here,” says Sushama Kumari.
The library was once beehive of activities and healthy and live discussions were held there. This was a window to the happenings outside the world, though the dissemination of information was at a slow pace.
She says that once most of the members were in the age group of 15 to 25 years old. Now, they have almost disappeared though a few among them turn up occasionally.
The influence of books were evident from the value system it instilled in the young minds and Upputhara being cut off from the mainstream by the Periyar on the one side and the tea plantations on the other side, the library was the agent to bring changes happening outside.
It was a time when owning a radio was a luxury and could not imagine one to be brought in the settlement area. People usually had thronged the evening time in the library and shared the news from those arriving from their native paces.
Political and other developments happening in the central Tarvancore were discussed through those relatives arriving on foot from Kuttikanam or though the ghat plantation roads via Vagamon. The library was the source of change in the early years of settlement in Upputhara.
