Kids catch up with summer reading

PUNE: In an age of television and multimedia, books are not as important as they once were. And it is to inspire children to pick up more books that the Pune Marathi Granthalaya (PMG) has successfully held free libraries' between April 15 and June 15 every summer for the past 27 years. Each year sees an unending stream of children visiting, almost 100 a day.
The initiative is run under the P L Deshpande Muktangan Children's Library, established by the PMG in 1989.
Speaking to TOI, Mukund Angal, executive president of the library, says that though television and other multimedia might have influenced reading as a hobby, it has not affected it to the extent people seem to think. "We started the libraries 27 years ago as a way of making books available to children all over the city and currently we have about 20 such libraries all over the city. Two years ago we also included the rural areas in the district of Pune in this initiative," says Angal.
Every summer the library invites applications to run such libraries from organisations and people in the city and well as those living in various villages in Pune district. "This year, we have 20 centres (libraries) across the city in Bibvewadi, Vishrantwadi, Kothrud, Nigdi, Marketyard, Wanowrie, Pashan and Kharadi, among others. But we only have one outside the city in Loni Kalbhor," says librarian Anjali Rajopadhyay.
Each of these libraries are given 100 books and are asked to remain open for a minimum of two hours every day. The library offers books in both Marathi and English, the English ones being donated by the British Council Library. "The most popular titles include story books like Bokya Satbande, Chintu, Harry Potter, Arabian Nights etc. We provide the libraries books as per their demand, so if they want more Marathi books, we provide it," explains Rajopadhyay.
According to parent Arvind Abhyankar, reading is a habit that needs to be nurtured and encouraged amongst children today. "Reading is a must since it also helps children in their studies. I make sure both my daughters read regularly and I bring them here every day," he says. His daughter, Ojasvini studies in std V and loves to come to the library. Not only does she read books, but even watches and hears stories on the computer on CDs and VCDs.
"These computers are not included in the free summer libraries but children can become members of the library here for a nominal fee of Rs 4 and then access the computers and the CDs we have for them. While the majority of the material we have is in Marathi, we do have some English CDs," says Rajopadhyay.
According to her, the library also makes for a great place for children to get together and spend time with each other.