Sushama Kumari sits on a chair in the corner of a small library-cum-reading room. She is preparing the list of new books to be purchased this year for the library, which has been in existence at Upputhara for the past seven decades. Once upon a time, it was the hub of political and social interaction in the high ranges. No longer, as many other libraries have cropped up in the neighbouring panchayats.
“We have around 4,000 titles, most of them in Malayalam. Till recently, youngsters used to flock to this library to get initiated into reading, grow up intellectually and fly out into the world out there, but not too many of them come in these days” says Sushama Kumari, who has been working here for over two decades now.
There was a time when the library was a beehive of activity with people gathering there to discuss everything under the sun. The library was originally located in the ground floor of the panchayat building. At the time, a large number of older people also used to converge at the library. Now that the library ha been shifted to the upper floor of the building, older people are finding it hard to come up, she says.
“There was a time when this was the only cultural centre in this whole village. For the descendants of the original settlers, this was a window on the outside world, especially the only way to reach out to the world of literature and learning. It is just that with the growth of technology and modes of communication, the youngsters have several other avenues to secure information,” she adds.
