THE LIBRARY.

The summer vacations had just begun. Me and my brother were so excited. The birds would be free to fly, albeit for a short time. We hated school and its rules and homework. The vacations brought about cheer on our dull sunken faces. Waking up at our own leisure and sleeping late at night was a pleasurable thought.

'Jalaram Library and Paper Mart' was our most desired and favoured hangout during the vacations. We would ride on our tri-cycle when my brother would sit and I would pedal with my foot to reach the library.We would reach before the opening hours and wait patiently for Chandubhai, the owner to come and open the library. He was a frail myopic person with soda glasses and a constant cigarette dangling out of his lips. His coughing bouts were attributed by him to the allergy of paper dust. He never used to blame the cigarette for his state. Any case, he was the most respected person in our locality, we used to literally revere him.

The comics and books were all arranged neatly in alphabetical order. We used to go in groups and collect our comics. Mandrake,TinTin and Phantom ruled our fantasy lives. Later we would exchange comics with each other. As we grew up our taste matured to Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. We would make small clubs like Famous Five and Secret Seven and play detective games. It was our own make believe world. We were happy children then. Some books were covered in brown covers and were hidden from public view. I was always curious to know their content but Chandubhai never revealed their contents, much to our dismay.

We passed out of school and got busy with our college lives never to return to the library again. The heavy tomes of Medicine occupied most of our lives. A solitary newspaper was our only connection with the outside world. I missed my old library. We shifted our residence and my brother went abroad. It was decades since we went to my old residence.

The library was no longer there. It was just a dull paper mart where old papers were weighed and money given. English papers fetched more money by weight as compared to vernacular papers. I could not fathom this too. I met Chandubhai who looked like a pale shadow of his past. He was contended, had prospered in this paper business and boasted of a swanky car, parked outside his shop. He said that the advent of media age had taken a toll on his library business. Children were no longer interested to read like before. We understood his view point.

The library was our life line during the vacations. Seeing it shut down upset us. With a heavy heart, We left the place.

As we were leaving, we saw a tri-cycle on the road with the younger brother sitting at the front and the elder brother pedalling. A sense of 'deja vu' was felt by us.

I just hugged my younger brother and cried.