Writeups | Torchlight

24Jan

By Jerry Pinto3 Comments

Issue 1 - March 2017

On Libraries

My first encounter with a library was not a pleasant one. I was in the third standard and around eight years old. My father’s idea of a birthday present was to take me to Prabhat Circulating Library and Book Shop near the Kohinoor Mills Circle at Dadar. I was terribly excited when we stepped in because I thought I was going to get a book. I remember being rather disappointed when I discovered that instead my gift was a membership in the circulating library. I knew what I wanted: I am afraid I was taken in by the vibrant colour and the promise of excitement in a Donald Duck comic and a collection of Dennis the Menace cartoons. Donald Duck was a familiar character from the rare cartoon films at Shree Cinema. I had no idea then that the comics were boring, as I would discover a few year...

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...

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...

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...

24Jan

By Alia SinhaNo Comments

Alt Shift Archives, Issue 1 - March 2017

A Readerly Problem

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...

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, ...

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...

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.

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