COIMBATORE: The clacking of machines around and the honking of vehicles on the busy Mumbai roads are in no way bothering P Vijayan, immersed in his thoughts. The fineness of the fabric churned out by a machine nearby makes the textile engineer of a private firm think about life in his hometown V Vedapatti in Thoothukudi, which is in stark contrast to the glitter of the cloth.
Six years in the textile industry in the financial capital was too much for him. In 2008, Vijayan decided to bid adieu to the high-paying job to become a librarian at a humble village library near home, hoping to mould many a life.
That was just the beginning. Within three years, Vijayan made it into the State government’s library department and joined the branch library in Nambuthalai in Ramanathapuram. A recipient of two awards instituted by the State — Best Readers Forum Award (2018) and Best Librarian Award (2021) — Vijayan’s love for letters has grown manifold with the passage of time.
“I believe library is not just for lending books. It should be able to attract people from all age groups. In the US, libraries are considered as common man’s university, and in Australia, they are seen as community learning centres. I hope the perspective will change in our country as well,” says the book lover, who has been working as a Grade III librarian at the Kovaipudur branch in Coimbatore since 2014.
After much toil, the Kovaipudur library has become a model library now. Established in 1993, Vijayan recollects, when he joined, the library was housed in one room and lacked basic facilities.
“Though 1,900 members were there, many were inactive. To woo the readers, I decided to upgrade the facility. A new building was constructed using the Constituency Development Fund of Rs 5 lakh in 2014. And, many books, including those for competitive exams, and computers were bought,” he says.
Even after this, the librarian says, the people were reluctant to come to the library.
“That’s when I started a career guidance centre and separate clubs for children, women and senior citizens. That helped. Slowly, the people started coming and began participating in various activities. At this time, we would be spreading awareness on the importance of making reading a habit,” Vijayan reveals, adding now the library boasts 18,675 books and 3,973 members.
Society can be transformed if children start reading books during their leisure time. “I strongly believe making people read will reduce the crime rate. Keeping this in mind, I have been raising awareness of developing reading habits among students. This will continue till the end of my life,” he says.
For the librarian, the biggest achievement in his life was taking out a campaign to spread awareness of reading habits. “It happened in June and July 2019. The drive that covered 108 schools here saw the participation of 62,233 students and 2,980 students,” he explains with pride gleaming in his eyes.
A parent, a member of the library, is not able to hide his happiness when he says, “A month after I enrolled my son in the library club, his reading skills improved. The behavioural change in him is clearly visible. Now, he has reduced screen time on his mobile phone, thanks to his new passion — reading.”
SP (Fingerprint) of Coimbatore police, S Logeshkumar, is all praise for Vijayan, as he says it was the librarian, who helped him land the job. “When I completed my BSc nursing course, I had no idea what to do. It was Vijayan sir who helped me crack the TNSURB exam in 2018. Our library is indeed a common man’s university,” he signs off.