The Lending Libraries Of Madras

Tamil Nadu is witnessing the worst drought in 140 years and there is no daily supply of drinking water in Chennai.

- Krishna Kumar Mishra

In many areas, piped water is being supplied only once in three days. I feel not only agitated, but also sad.

Madras (what to do, I’m still uncomfortable with Chennai and Mumbai) will always have a special place in my life. I was 17, when with a suitcase in hand, first time I walked out of the Madras Central railway station, the huge majestic building, designed with a combination of Gothic and Romanesque styles. The original railway station was designed by George Harding, later modified by Robert Fellowes Chisholm with the addition of the central clock tower. It was opened in 1873, some 144 years back. All these details I had memorized from a booklet and with the flood of information about the grand old city my mind was transported to several years back. I felt being part of its history, like a character in any Dickensian novel. Thankfully, I remained one, right from that moment for another four years, as a result of very sincere and pragmatic efforts by some very nice people, whom I met there the first time. In the process I learned so much about the happenings of the century I was born in – certainly the 20th Century was the bloodiest of all. The much greater slaughter occurred because of two absolutist, uninhibited, unrestricted ideologies and sociopolitical experiments - fascism and communism. It murdered people in war and democide without the inhibition of culture and religion.

Madras was the place I grew up intellectually, although I was studying engineering, a dry and bland subject. The credit goes to some private lending libraries, second hand bookstore owners and some very enthusiastic old people I met; in all of whom I literally saw an abstract image of the captivating song “No matter what the future brings/As time goes by” penned by Herman Hupfeld, from the classic film Casablanca.