A New Leaf

Speaking about their project The Book Leaf,that was inaugurated on April 25,Rawat says,“When we were young,the main source of books for us were the libraries. But nowadays,most parents who want their children to read,end up buying too many books which eventually they find very difficult to store in their house.” Adding to it,Tavares says,“As we both are very passionate about books,we thought of coming up with a library that has the books that we loved and not just romance novels and best-sellers.” Both Tavares and Rawat says that the real inspiration behind the opening of the library was that reading all kinds of books helps readers to really open up their minds and makes them better person.

As per the duo,the unique name The Book Leaf that comes with a tagline ‘Turn a leaf,read a book’ denotes not only the importance of each leaf or page in the book,but also the need to be conscious of one’s environment. It also aims to spread the message of turning over a new leaf and begin reading. “This is not a business for us,but our own wonderland that we want to share with others and keep expanding that sphere of knowledge along with our book leafers,” says Rawat.

The biggest challenge with which they are still struggling is the space to house the books. Tavares says,“Being a traditional book lover at heart,we would like people to come,feel and smell the aroma of books and not just click and judge the book by its cover.” To which Rawat adds,“So to get people over and spend a little of their precious life and time amongst books,will be a bigger challenge in this techno centric world.”

Catering to the taste of readers of all age groups,the library houses around 4,000 books,which Rawat and Tavaris have collected in the past 30 years. Besides novels and several books on varied topics like knowledge,history,travel,food,music,drama,art and so on,it also houses a couple of books printed in the 1,900s and a few from the pre-independence era like Science and Hebrew Tradition Essays by Thomas H Huxley. “Many of these books are no longer being printed and are therefore rare to come by in most libraries and book shops. There are also some books that are autographed by the writers like one by Wilfred Russell (Flame of the Forest and other poems of India 1956). So,the collection is exciting to say the least,” adds Tavares.

As far as the future plans are concerned,The Book Leaf intends to draw avid readers not just from around but to branch out to others who would love to read the extraordinary kind of books present here.