‘Heartbreaking’: Over 2,000 books damaged, community library grapples with rain loss

Simpy has been a part of The Community Library Project since she was 12. “Seeing the havoc caused by a single monsoon shower was heartbreaking,” she says, adding that the library bore the brunt of the heaviest downpour in Delhi in 88 years. The Community Library Project, which has now grown to three branches in Sheikh Sarai, South Extention and Gurgaon, was established over 10 years ago with the mission of ensuring that everyone has access to books.

Amid frantic efforts by her and her colleagues to pump the water out using motors from the Sheikh Sarai branch on Friday, a high accumulation of silt choked the pumps and left them helpless. “We didn’t know how to remove the water,” Simpy recollects. “So we decided to move all the books from the bottom shelves to the second floor to keep them safe.” In a heartening display of solidarity, community members rallied together, armed with buckets and mops, to start the arduous task of draining the water. “We started cleaning at 10:30 am, and it took us until 7:30 pm to finally clear the space,” she adds.

The Community Library Project takes pride in being an anti-caste people’s initiative, dedicated to building a publicly-owned, free library system accessible to all. “Access cannot be built without acknowledging the history of excluding people from reading,” says Mausam, the 24-year-old deputy director, as she uses a fan to dry out the soaked books. “We believe that books are for everyone. Public library systems are the bedrock of breaking through the barriers of caste exploitation,” she adds.

The community library in Sheikh Sarai is visited by people from Jagdamba Camp, Chirag Dilli, Khidki Gaon, Hauz Rani, and Panchsheel Vihar. It houses books in English, Hindi, Urdu, Bangla, Punjabi, and Odia. “People who visit us from Hauz Rani are from Afghanistan, so we also have books in Dari and Pashto. But now, two thousand of our books are damaged due to waterlogging,” she says.

“Most of our books come from donations,” she adds. “People donate rucksacks full of books, but sometimes it’s mostly scraps they no longer wish to keep. Each book that makes it to our shelf is selected after going through piles of donated books.”

“It’s quite devastating. Even though the water inside the library has been cleaned, the books are falling apart in our hands —the Mahabharata, the Champaks… books that are loved by our community. We were planning to host a pride event today for which we hand-painted a poster. It was a scene straight out of a movie: we entered the space, and there was a giant pride poster floating on the water. Bucket by bucket, we had to clean the space. It’s gone from extreme heat to extreme water. From drought to drowning, we have never experienced anything like this before,” Priyanka, a new library member, says. “Silt entered the library. We have to take climate change into account… We have to keep our members and our books safe. We do not have any other space right now,” she adds.

Wearing a shirt with B.R. Ambedkar’s picture and the words “educate, organise, agitate” boldly written, Sumit, 27, a community organiser connected with the project, is seen cleaning the dirt using a coconut broom.

“I wanted to read books but didn’t have any money, so a friend told me about this library in 2016. When I saw the space, it had a huge big collection. I have been connected with the project ever since,” he says. “If one would look at our faces today, they’ll notice that we are tired. When we entered the library space yesterday, we were shocked, but we didn’t give up. We instantly knew we had suffered great losses, but we have all experienced great losses before. That doesn’t mean we will lose hope.”