THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Times may have changed for the Eloor library in Thiruvananthapuram, but it remains the city’s silent pride for the warm and liberating experience it turned reading into.
Set up in the capital city in 1986, the library used to once swarm with avid readers. However, since about 2015, membership started to dwindle. There has been a slump of 50 per cent.
The Eloor chain opened first in Ernakulam in 1979, after a voracious reader, P Luiz John, chose to give wings to his dreams and start a lending library with a collection of nearly 5,000 books.
The library gradually grew, drawing its patrons from among academicians, students, professionals, and anyone interested in the written word. The stock of books grew to almost a lakh.
The mode of operation was simple — take a membership with a refundable deposit of Rs 1,000 and then rent out books at 10 per cent their cost.
The library then expanded to Thiruvananthauram, and then to Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Delhi.
In the capital city, the Eloor library set up base first in Ayurveda College, then near Statue Junction and then at Vellayambalam, where it still remains.
The library, with hand-printed signage that bore both the elegance of an old script and the flamboyance of a changing generation, was a regular stopover of many book lovers who came craving for Gerald Durrell, Bill Bryson, James Herriot, P G Wodehouse, et al. Eloor had it all.
Eloor offered a refreshing experience. At that time, the British Council Library, on the YMCA compound, catered less to those keen to read American books. The State Central Library, the oldest public library in the country, was not enticing enough for the new reader who looked for varieties that included Booker winners, best-sellers, popular magazines, computer books, children’s volumes, and competitive exams manuals.
Someone who has been with Eloor right from its start was Aishwarya Rajan, who saw her reading grow richer each time she borrowed from the library. “Those days, going to Eloor meant a warm, unhurried day. It was also a very liberating feeling, something that can only be felt by those who grew up in the ’90s. Computers were in a growing phase and Eloor knew the trend,” the techie recalls.
Things started changing for the library in 2000, with the e-gen picking up pace. “We always updated our stock. Our regular updates was in the children’s section and career guidance books,” says Narayanan K A, librarian of the Thiruvananthapuram branch, who has been with Eloor for 25 years now.
The slump in membership has been more prominent after the pandemic, forcing the library to even stop its computerisation process.
“Career books are no longer in demand, with coaching classes dishing out their own content to the aspirants,” says Narayanan.
“Earlier, they took refuge in the books we had more than in coaching classes. Children, too, read less now. We, however, have many old-time loyalists.”
Another patron, Rajani Sadasivan, a guest lecturer, says the old-world charm of the place reminds of her student days. “It takes me back to simpler times. I love the fact that they have not computerised the membership system,” she says.
“I go to Eloor for educational books or new treats in fiction. I feel they should manage the books better. Some people do not return the books they take. They come after a long period to pay the cost of the book as compensation.”
Sadly, Eloor libraries has shut shop in Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. Old-timers hope the same does not happen in Thiruvananthapuram. “The library is part of the city’s heritage. I wish efforts are made to preserve it,” says Aishwarya.
There & Then
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