Book donation spirit getting bigger and stronger

Homemakers, celebrities, elders, children, students and working professionals are making contributions

Cricketer Kris Srikanth at the Aviva Great Wall of Education, presented by The Hindu, at Express Avenue Mall in Chennai, on Wednesday. Photos: V.Ganesan

One lakh forty thousand and it's still counting. That's the number of books donated so far to the Aviva Great Wall of Education, presented by The Hindu , at Express Avenue Mall, Royapettah, here since the drive began on Sunday.

From volunteers helping the enthusiasts carry their bags of books from the entrance of the mall to senior citizens enquiring whether they would even collect books from their doorstep to seeing every donor smile seeing their photograph captured, the spirit of the book donation only seems to be getting bigger and stronger. But, the 104-feet wall will have to close on Thursday at 4 p.m. – the last day to donate books.

Thanks to the generous contributions by homemakers, celebrities, elders, children, students and working professionals, some of the donors on day four could not be missed. For senior citizens T.N.K. Ramasubramanien and R. Meenakshi it was the second day at the mall – as they brought their collection of books in batches since the bags were heavy.

However, K.N.Anandhi, 72, an approved tour guide, was assured that a volunteer would drop in to collect her collection comprising pencils, books, rubber and sharpener.

Mahalakshmi Gangadharan's 937 books stood as one of the highest individual donations on Wednesday, although many other group donors such as The Hindu Library (2,000) and students from Vivekananda College (500) kept on adding to the numbers. For a minute one just wondered if S. Sridharan and his son, who reside in T.Nagar, came to board a flight. Each of them slowly pulled two trolleys full of books for the Great Wall of Education. Apart from the story telling session by Story Trails and skit enacted by Evam, children pulled in many shoppers to check what was happening.

Homemaker Varsha Aswani and her friends came with eight children, who were dressed as Gods and Goddesses, to motivate shoppers to donate book. Neither, did the special children from the Spastic Society of Tamil Nadu go unnoticed.

From 11 a.m. celebrities in various fields kept dropping in. They included drummer Sivamani, cricketer Kris Srikanth, singer Tanvi Shah, actor Prasanna, Correspondent of Calibre Academy Madhuvanthi, Carnatic vocalist Aruna Sairam, MLA S.Ve. Sekhar and director Vasanth. “It is a great initiative and one must all support the drive,” said Mr. Srikanth, who donated some of his son's books.