All set!!! Space, books and other accessories!
Also we managed to find two local young women in their early 20s to take care of the library everyday for a little remuneration every month!
So, now... Do we need to arrange an event to open the library or just put it to use straight away?
After quite a lot of deliberations, we felt that if someone from the district administration agrees to inaugurate, the whole event would get some attention in the village leading to people trusting us and sending their children without any hesitation! It did not happen as the whole district administration was busy with Book Fair.
That's when we decided to bring in two different personalities to motivate children to use this library!
One, Perumaathaal Aachi, the senior-most Panchayat President of Tamil Nadu. She immediately agreed to come and inaugurate. Though she is always accompanied by one of her grandsons who is from a political party himself, he was not only cooperative but also did not show any sign of political influence. It made us feel good as we were clear about not having any religious, caste, political shades or the like. We decided to invite her as she proves to be a woman of strength and will power!! She truly is! And to receive blessings from an octogenarian is special anyday!
The next person, Mrs. Pushpalata Pooranan, the Director and Correspondent of Pushpalata Schools, Tirunelveli. My husband knew her for years now on professional front and we both know that she did her best to government schools in and around Tirunelveli. She always gives a helping hand to economically not so sound government schools on their request. This brought us together and we wanted to have her with us in Tomoe Library for her wide interest in book reading and children! She happily agreed and lauded us for this effort.
On the day of inauguration, a lady arrived and none of us knew her. she told us that she was invited by Mrs. Pushpalata. We waited for our guests and Pushpalata ma'am was on time and she introduced the lady to us as a story teller for children, Ms. Bhaagirathi. It was so thoughtful of her to bring her school's storyteller for children of this village on her own. They both gifted us a bundle of books!!! Mrs. Pushpalata wanted Ms. Bhaagirathi to hold a session for children but the other guest did not arrive. We then decided to go ahead with story telling while we kept waiting for aachi. One after the other, two hilarious stories were told and children thoroughly enjoyed.
Storyteller, Ms. Bhaagirathi
As Mrs. Pushpalata is always conscious about time and she hinted us about the same, we got restless and decided to go ahead with ribbon-cutting. If this is going to be the case, what would aachi do??!!!! On the spot, some of our friends advised to make her light a traditional lamp. We all agreed and immediately arranged from the neighbourhood. So where do we keep it now? That is when Buddha smiled. The universe said that this was why we brought in the little kid to draw nothing but Buddha!!!! It was purely a blissful moment! We totally felt that things do fall in place when we do the right things and engage with right people!!!! Having decided that, we called mam to formally open, but she said she could wait for aachi to come and cut the ribbon. We insisted that we had other plans and so she went ahead and read a story for children from one of our books.
Aachi arrived with his grandson who made himself comfortable in the last row of chairs. We received aachi and brought her in to light the lamp. She was totally reluctant as she felt herself unfit to light the lamp (given her widow status). When we all insisted that only she is the right person to do, she agreed, lighted and prayed for a while. What a fulfilling moment it was!!!!
The guests agreed to give away gifts to children and Pushpalata ma'am spoke a few words to children on how important it is to read books. She addressed them in a simple, understandable way with examples. She noticed that there were literally no adults or parents from the village to see their children get a new place to read the world!
Followed by her, we were skeptical about aachi's willingness to speak. But she right away jumped in and delivered a short one. She told the kids that she dropped out after class 5 but reads 5 different newspapers everyday. The highlight of her address is this: "A group of four boys when sent to a library, one would pick up the habit of reading whereas in a group of four girls, all four would get inclined to reading and make use of the library." Such a simple enlightening one!
That was the end of it... NO, the BEGINNING!!!
Children promised to visit library almost everyday! ЁЯТЮ
...to be continued ЁЯТЭ
Inspiring
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