Monday, April 29

Sections

Reading a Second-Hand Book: A Journey of Serendipity
4Jun By Gayatri Gulvady3 Comments
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 2 - June 2017

Reading a Second-Hand Book: A Journey of Serendipity

Walking into a quaint second-hand bookstore and accidentally discovering a book that one has been searching for are two necessary ingredients of any bibliophile’s dream. In case you have already conjured up an image of this dream, you have me for company. Memories of stumbling upon childhood classics or rare out-of-print novels in ‘Bookworm’ or ‘Murthys’ Select Bookstore’ have come rushing back as I write this article. While some of you might opt for your books to be fresh and unused, I usually prefer second-hand copies, which have carefully preserved the experiences and memories of the previous readers within its delicate pages.   By being held in the hands of several other individuals, second-hand books have an irreplaceable charm. Be it the inscriptions on the flyleaf, the do...
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Communities – the Libraries of Life
4Jun By Radha GopalanNo Comments
Axis, Issue 2 - June 2017

Communities – the Libraries of Life

Libraries have been my sanctuary - the chairs, the alcoves, the stools in the corner, the smell of old and new books – unquestioningly absorbing the ebbs and flows of my life. In my mind therefore a library was shelves of books that revealed worlds, words and images where I could lose myself for fleeting moments or hours – in silence. More recently however, over the last 10 years or so, my libraries have expanded beyond the written word: they reside in people. They are built on life experiences where the words, images and experience are passed on by word of mouth, embedded in practice, from generation to generation.   For a lot of us, the written word dominates the way we learn, accumulate knowledge and educate ourselves. The mainstream education system lays a lot of stress on w...
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Open Sim-Sim: Digital Doors to Community Libraries
4Jun By Menaka Raman1 Comment
Axis, Issue 2 - June 2017

Open Sim-Sim: Digital Doors to Community Libraries

Perhaps glum statistics aren’t the best way to begin. But sometimes, glum statistics are hard to ignore. “Mapping Children’s Literature in India”, published by Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) and Parag Trust, tells us that there are 1.5 lakh libraries in India, but no data available on the children’s literature on their shelves. Seventy-four percent of school children in India have negligible or no access to libraries.  While in the United Kingdom one child enjoys access to six books, a less abundant picture emerges in India. In urban areas there is one book for six children, while in rural India there is one book for eleven children.   When I read things like this, I realise how very lucky I have been. Growing up, libraries were a constant and reassuring presence in my life. There ...
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31May By Salil ChaturvediNo Comments
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 2 - June 2017

A Thousand Wrinkles (Why I Love To Read)

I don’t suppose you’ve met Nyima. But then, by a crazy accident, perhaps you have. Strange coincidences do happen in this world. Perhaps you took a holiday to Ladakh and bumped into her. In which case, you would have met Urghyen, her father, too. You must have seen the way his face shows a thousand wrinkles when he smiles. And you would have met her shaggy dog and seen how Urghyen immobilises him by putting his forepaws into his collar so he does not bother people.   You would have seen Nyima milking the goats and picking up their droppings which her family uses for fuel to survive the biting winter. And perhaps Nyima took you to the Hanle monastery where she prays for the goats and yaks of her tribe, the Changpas. Nyima must definitely have shown you her father’s rebo (the trad...
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On The Same Page
30May By Beena ChoksiNo Comments
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 2 - June 2017

On The Same Page

Being able to criss-cross the globe on the strength of the Internet has made it possible to engage with creative ideas, conversations, and experiences which otherwise would be beyond our reach—and at times, even beyond our imagination.  On The Same Page will bring to the reader of Torchlight, a combination of textual-audio-visual curated content, about and around libraries and bookish love.   Las Misiones Pedagógicas Imagine borrowing a book from a library and finding card in it, which reads: When you finish your work wash your hands and take the book you have requested. Find a quiet spot and read. You’ll always remember these moments with pleasure. Then put the book away carefully until you can continue reading. Make sure that you when you return the book after reading it, it is as ...
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Shakespeare and Me
29May By Uma MahadevanNo Comments
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 2 - June 2017

Shakespeare and Me

One Sunday morning when we were living in Calcutta, my father announced that we would be moving to Bangalore. His office had transferred him there for a project. What was a project, and where was Bangalore, demanded my sister, who was just six, and therefore had questions about everything. My mother murmured something about work and machines, and took out the atlas.   I remained silent. I was in Class 4, I had seen the map of India many times and knew roughly where Bangalore was, but I didn’t want to move anywhere. I didn’t want to move away from my dozens of friends in the building, my school, and my city.   We moved in the middle of the first term. I remained angry and resentful as we packed my new school uniforms: why were we taking them? I wouldn’t be using them a...
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Preface to Torchlight
18Feb By Sujata NoronhaNo Comments
Axis, Issue 1 - March 2017

Preface to Torchlight

"The light they give is insufficient and unceasing,"  writes Jorge Luis Borges in his short story, "The Library of Babel", when referring to bulbs in the Library.  Torchlight, a Journal of Libraries and Bookish Love finds its context in a similar  half-lit  place and time of light and shadows. There is so much to know yet, and so much to share that even in our assuming that we know the library, we find we do not and so we are driven to go on searching. "When it was announced that the Library contained all books, the first reaction was unbounded joy" (ibid., 69)1 and this is akin to the feeling of birthing Torchlight. What began as an idea amongst a few of us spread joyfully to include others and we find ourselves sharing our first issue of Torchlight with all of you. Watch ‘Bookseller o...
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The Girl Who Ate Books
24Jan By Neha YadavNo Comments
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 1 - March 2017

The Girl Who Ate Books

Dear reader, Have you ever been strong-armed into attending a party? Have you, despite a magnificent display of resistance and reluctance, found yourself obliged to drive over to a colleague/friend’s house, gift and graces in tow, to mingle with fellow humans? On such occasions, when small talk has petered out and lots of awkward accidental eye contact has been made, have you found yourself seeking out a quiet balcony? Out in the blessed dark, away from the dhin-chak-dhin-chak of dance music, have you found yourself longing for the company of a book? A book that gets you; a book that is at once a billet-doux to the quiet readerly life and an account of the mad adventures and passion that lurk within pages and souls? Reader, meet The Girl Who Ate Books.  Nilanjana Roy is one of our mos...
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Thinking Otherwise: A conversation about a book and library evangelists
24Jan By Samina MishraNo Comments
Axis, Issue 1 - March 2017

Thinking Otherwise: A conversation about a book and library evangelists

It is a winter evening in Delhi and the warm lights and cosy atmosphere of Café Turtle are an appropriate setting for a conversation about bookish love. Usha Mukunda and Sujata Noronha are self-described “almost library evangelists”, women who love stories, books and libraries, and are deeply committed to passing that love on to children. As someone who also shares that love, I feel privileged in sharing this moment with them, reflecting on people and books that can change lives. And so, they tell me about Miss Moore. In the second decade of the twenty-first century, I listen to Usha and Sujata tell me about their encounter with this book, 'Miss Moore Thought Otherwise.' I listen and I think of this history and the contributions of those who came before us – the storytellers, the ac...
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Thematic Reading in the Library
24Jan By Thejaswi ShivanandNo Comments
Axis, Issue 1 - March 2017

Thematic Reading in the Library

I work in a small school near Bangalore where the curriculum is committed to an active place for the library space as the children grow up over the years they are at school. The engagement with the space happens in multiple ways across the spectrum of ages, of which I would like to share my experience with children of the ages fourteen to eighteen. While I am not a librarian, my work is closely associated with the library, where I share my interest in books with these children as an anchor for their library programme. The library at our school, like many others, is a traditional library dominated by books, while not being traditional when it comes to access and use of books. Books aren’t locked, are regularly looked after with care, and used in many ways by an array of readers. Many...
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A Library in My Pocket
24Jan By Roshan Sahi3 Comments
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 1 - March 2017

A Library in My Pocket

A CONVERSATION ABOUT LIBRARIES... . . . we indeed become producers, inventors and adventurers of living stories through the multiplicity and vastness of environments we encounter in our everyday life! So indeed this then is the story we live through weaving and being stirred/moved between library spaces and the rest of the Universe. Hence our experiences of life can be enriched through libraries in the ways a library space can mirror the world. In this sense, I feel how we experience libraries can be synonymous to who we are as people; as a society and an individual, who can journey within surrounding landscapes and find wonderful adventures to live and love life to its fullest. And so the story begins . . . Living libraries are about spaces into which we, in the course of our every...
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On the Same Page
22Jan By Beena Choksi1 Comment
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 1 - March 2017

On the Same Page

Being able to criss-cross the globe on the strength of the Internet has made it possible to engage with creative ideas, conversations, and experiences which otherwise would be beyond our reach—and at times, even beyond our imagination.  On The Same Page will bring to the reader of Torchlight, a combination of textual-audio-visual curated content, about and around libraries and bookish love. Throughout history, libraries have been venerated—but also destroyed. If on the one hand these repositories of knowledge and wisdom have freed the shackles of the mind, on the other hand they have been feared for the very same reason. From ancient to modern times, about a dozen grand libraries spanning at least 3 continents, have been destroyed by human intent and action. We know nothing, though, ...
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​Learning About Our Selves Through Our Bookshelves
20Jan By Karan VasudevaNo Comments
Axis, Issue 1 - March 2017

​Learning About Our Selves Through Our Bookshelves

Imagine you are an explorer in a desolate, post-apocalyptic landscape who comes across an abandoned house. The occupants have long departed but all their belongings are still there. Which of these things should you look at first to understand what kind of people the former inhabitants were? My suggestion is that you spend time looking over their books. But we don't have to wait for a nuclear winter to perform this thought experiment on our own personal libraries. The books we possess stand for the things we are now, or were at one time, truly interested in. They are not the most utilitarian of our possessions. They don't keep us in physical comfort. They aren't food or fuel. The only reason to acquire a book is to have a specific interest in the things it talks about. This makes our per...
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My Book Friend
19Jan By Aarti Srinivasan4 Comments
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 1 - March 2017

My Book Friend

A few years back, in the most unusual place, I found a bookseller who did not just ​sell books. He shared stories from books ​that ​he sold with so much passion that I always ended up buying those​ books​. This video is my little gift to this Book Friend, who’s given me the joy of reading some of the best books ever written.
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Magic by Shel Silverstein – A Rendition
19Jan By Niju MohanNo Comments
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 1 - March 2017

Magic by Shel Silverstein – A Rendition

Magic Read this to yourself. Read it silently. Don’t move your lips. Don’t make a sound? Listen to yourself. Listen without hearing anything. What a wonderfully weird thing, huh? NOW MAKE THIS PART LOUD! SCREAM IT IN YOUR MIND! DROWN EVERYTHING OUT. Now, hear a whisper. A tiny whisper. Now, read this next line in your best crotchety old man voice: “Hello there sonny, does this town have a post office?” Awesome! Who was that? Whose voice was that? Certainly not yours. How do you do that? How!? Must be magic!! Photo courtesy: http://www.biography.com/people/shel-silverstein-9483912
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