Mumbai’s ‘Human Library’ completes a year

You may love books, pore over them as you sip coffee or let your imagination soar over the pages in front of you, but what if they talked back? It would stimulate a different interaction altogether. And, that’s exactly what the ‘human library’ trend is all about. It has people doubling up as ‘books’ to allow others to ‘read’ about their lives and experiences via a real chat. It is proving to be an effective therapy for Mumbaikars, given the numerous human walking-talking human libraries it has witnessed in a year's time. People have been opening up about surviving body-shaming, abuse, ditching the traditional work path and more. Admits Andaleeb Qureshi, who steered the concept in the city, “Many people have told me that their lives changed after they read a human book; it felt so nice!” As the human library in Mumbai turns a year on May 27, here’s looking at why you should check into one, too!

A library that helps you develop empathy
Contrary to silence being the numero uno rule in a traditional library, you can get chatty in a ‘human library’. The idea is to let go of preconceived notions in the one-to-one conversation with the ‘book’ in front of you. It’s almost like speed dating, except that you connect to simply share and learn from someone’s experience. Adds Andaleeb, “The aim of the human library is to neutralise the negative connotations or stigmas attached to certain situations in our societies. The last year has gone in conversing with over 90 human books, listening to their hidden voices and stories that needed to be shared and heard without judgements. Human emotions are so powerful that when they are expressed with honesty, the heart listens and the mind opens.”
Anyone can sign up to be a book, but you get selected only after a short interview. When the readers come to the event, they are asked to go through a catalogue of titles, to select the human book they want to borrow and read in a 30-minute conversation session. Some choose to even re-read a book.

Impact of being a human book
Mulund resident and fitness trainer Josephine Fernandes chose to become a book last July to tell her story of marital violence. “I was in a bad marriage years ago. I didn’t know what to do, as back then, there was no question of opting for a separation or divorce. I finally got out of it after 15 years. I was discriminated against and ex-communicated by family and others for taking the step,” she says, adding, “I ended up talking non-stop for three hours. Reliving the past disturbed me, but I emerged stronger from the experience. The best part was that the people who read me, wanted to know how to get out of similar situations. I am all for the concept of human books, as it’s not words that you read, but emotions, which makes a huge difference.”
Known as ‘Beard, Bun And Bandana’ on account of his appearance, Kishin Thakur chose to be a book to undo prejudices. “I have been stopped at airports because of the way I look. My passport photo looks different from the way I am in real life. I have even been told that I don’t look ‘normal’. The way I dress up may be different, but that’s no reason to be looked upon as different. When I go for a job interview, I am asked about the beard and the man bun that I sport. Through my role as a book, I wanted to tell people that it’s fine to not look like someone else.”
He has another survival story to share. On a trip to Nepal, he and a friend were lost in the Langtang jungle at 17,500 feet with no food and water for four days. Recalls Kishin, “That was some crazy survival lesson. We used to walk under 60-feet tall trees. We didn’t know where to go for water or whether we’d get out alive or end up being the next meal for a wild animal. So many Mumbaikars ‘read’ me and asked about it, I guess it became synonymous with survival in today’s times.”
One human book called ‘Not Under My Watch’ saw Mumbai’s only female traffic warden share her journey of going from a grocery shop to directing the traffic on the city’s busy roads. A book called ‘Always a Plus, Never A Minus’ saw an overweight married woman sharing how she defied “body norms and chose to become a plus-size model and encourage body positivity.”
They say one can’t judge a book by its cover. This can’t be truer than for the human library!