The Right to Read..

Yesterday we decided to spend some good time in the Woonsocket public library. Usually our trips to the library are very short. It will be mostly on our way to the gym. So hardly we spend 10 mins in the library. That too, in the dvd section, me searching for some comedy/drama movies and kishore searching for some action/thriller/oscar movies and finally the argument between us on which movie to take. But ystrday we went on to explore the books section. I was passing through the teens section and there it was - all the series of Fear Street, Sweet valley High neatly stacked in the shelves. There were multiple copies as well. That reminded me of my childhood days when this sight would have been a dream come true moment for me.

I used to read a lot during my school and college days. For me or anyone like me from Kerala(not sure abt other states), the only source of these books were the lending libraries. Even there we didnt have the luxury of multiple copies. I also had joined one, where i had to pay a deposit of 500 bucks to get the membership plus 10% of the book's price for each book i was lending. Once they even charged me with the full price of the book coz the last page of the book was missing. Not to mention that the last page had stuffs like other novels of the writer or other books he/she is planning to write in the future..definitely a must read page!!!

After seeing how readily the books are available here and thinking of how hard it was for me to pursue my hobby of reading, i really feel like as a child i was denied my right to read. I am sure that any child would love to have such a vast collection of books to read. So we should do something so that atleast the future generation of Kerala have free access to these books.. not the e-ones, but the actual hard bind ones.. Let them enjoy their right to read!