Sunday, May 19, 2019

The Book Sharing Initiative - Sundar Nagar Colony

Secretary Govardhan garu is an open-minded man. When Anjali wanted to check if the colony Ganesha was a clay one and environmentally friendly he took her, removed the cloth and showed it to her and assured her that they will buy only environmentally friendly ones.

Last year, inspired by the idea at TEDx VNR VJIET to have a bookstall where the guests can pick any book of their choice and walk away - free, I proposed such an idea to him during some event. Govardhan garu readily agreed and gave me space. I put up some 15 books with a small poster that Anjali made that these books could be taken away. It was interesting to see how suspicious and wary people were (just like I was at TEDx VNR VJIET) that they could simply take away the books free of cost.

The idea was to make sharing simpler, easier and unconditional. Yesterday, Govardhan garu sent word to me - he had set up a permanent stall inside the colony office and had contributed 20 books. I loved the idea and gave some 15 books myself. The other office bearers could not get their head around it. They all started saying 'library' and who will take care of it etc until we finally said there was no control required. Take book and go. I picked up two books - Rich Dad, Poor Dad and a biography of Einstein.

They found it difficult to understand that. But I hope that some of our inhibitions and suspicions disappear with such sharing. Hopefully, at some point, we can make this initiative bigger and share other things as well.

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