Mizoram sows seeds of street reading in Arunachal

Ngurang Meena, 30, a resident of Arunachal Pradesh’s Nirjuli, was browsing Facebook when a picture of a young man on a bike, reaching out towards a tiny box with shelves full of books, caught her eye.
The quaint postbox-like structure was nothing but a library; one of the several ‘little free libraries’ (LFLs) that have sprung up in Aizawl. The photograph captivated Meena, sitting 800km away, and she set about creating her own LFL. A few weeks later, Arunachal got its very own free ‘Self-Help Library’ on August 30 in Nirjuli, a town of 10,000-15,000 people in Papum Pare district.
“I bought books of all kinds worth Rs 10,000 and spent another Rs 10,000 to make the wooden library stall. I have kept 70-80 books there and the rest are in my room,” said Meena, who has been encouraging the locality’s children to spend 15-20 minutes at the library every day. “I have been asking the kids to visit the library by offering them chocolates,” Meena laughed.
The aim of the LFL is to encourage a reading habit. “Although my inspiration is Mizoram, I realise that Arunachal is very different. Kids have poor writing skills. I want students of Classes IX-XII to improve themselves by reading more,” Meena said, adding that the nearest government library is in Naharlagun, 10km away.
The library has received books from two donors so far. “I gave a dictionary and two books on UGC NET. I felt an urge to see the library for myself when I heard of it,” said Tamchi Gablo, 27, of Itanagar. “I couriered some books by Dale Carnegie,” added Prasanna Kumar Konch, a librarian in Arunachal’s Lohit district, a hub of the small library movement in the state.
The library does not have a protective glass front yet, nor a lock. “I know that books might be stolen. I am not unduly worried about this as I stay right opposite the library,” said Meena, who runs an NGO. To protect the books from rain damage, she has hung some plastic sheets in front of the stall.
Unlike the LFLs in Aizawl, the Nirjuli library does not lend books yet. But Meena added that she would have to start lending services to help schoolboys get over their ‘embarrassment’ at reading in public. “I see them looking at the library but doing not much else. They would be more comfortable borrowing books home than reading with little children,” she added.
Aizawl’s Lallaisangzuali Sailo, a librarian who started Mizoram’s first two LFLs with the help of a colleague, has a word of advice for Meena. “Often we see that the books we deposit in our LFLs are gone. People take ages to return books; some don’t return them at all. Please don’t get discouraged. Even if people take away books, at least they are reading,” said Lallaisangzuali, who set up two LFLS in Aizawl’s New Market and MZU Park in 2017.
Just like she was inspired, Meena hopes to inspire others. “In Arunachal, every 100 metres you will find a wine shop, so why not a library?” she said.