British council library

 

To me an user of BCL since my teens ie last 50 years or more this news of winding up of the British council library in Chennai is like a part of my memory being erased .

BCL to me like all the other libraries I had been obsessed about has been a mother to my creativity and passion of written prose .

As words jumble into my finger tips in a fine flow of crystal clear water tumbling from a mountain stream with reason and imagination hidden in its ledges and recesses and as I rejoice in the pleasure of painting with words what I have in my mind like  no AI can ever deliver it or will I even attempt with or need it as a poor sad cousin to my own writing  

My memories are sharp on my days of cycling or going by bus carrying my tome of books borrowed from the library ,

My hours of browsing the books or reading  inhaling the aroma of the word paradise I have been lucky to get into .

I remember the slim tall librarians silently acknowledging or replying to my request of books quietly efficient helpful knowledgable intelligent but firm in thier officialece but to me they were beacons of lights focussed to clear darkness of ignorance by the world of books which I loved more than anything the universe could ever give me .

BCL was not only a library it gave me people to nod and smile as I met them amongst the shelves or in the tiny theater where films were screened or lectures intoned in quiet efficiency or english dramas played .

During my medical college days BCLs Medical sections gave me books I couldnt buy on Anatomy or Biochemistry or marvels of surgery or obfustactions of obstructive  obstetrics .

I had carried  heavy pack of books in crowded buses or pinned to my bicycle carrier or later in my yezdi bike .

My greatest joy in a weekend would be to relax in the AC ambience of an expansive BCL .

Later during my RCC observer days in Trivandrum I was a neighbour to BCL there in YMCA where I stayed and it was my refuge every evening .

BCL to me is nostalgia rolled into gratitude 

BCL gave me  the gift of verbiose an unstoppable and most pleasurable passion in my life .

I would miss you my beloved sweet heart BCL forever and I would preserve your memories for infinity .