Trust cats to pick the cosiest spots around you. And if you go by the picks of Winnie and her kittens—Wendy, Tiger and Lily—then the Next Page Library is the place to be in Shivaji Nagar, Mumbai. You can see them lolling about in nooks, behind and in between books.
While the resident cats will have you believe that they are in charge, the library is actually run by Anoop Parik, 36, and his Next Page Community Foundation.
“The seed for the Next Page Library was planted when I was a school teacher,” says Parik, who has found his calling in the alternative education sector. “I noticed that those of my children who read were miles ahead of their peers in terms of understanding their world and themselves. This, coupled with the realisation that the formal education system in India does its best to stifle free thinking and creativity, made me want to start a library for young people in the community where I taught.”
The library usually sees school and college students using the space for studying and reading. Almost all of them come from underprivileged backgrounds. There is no membership fee and the library runs on donations.
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“Every book in the library has its place, from NBT books and Amar Chitra Katha to books by Nobel laureates,” says Parik. “As a librarian, I feel the book that completes our library is Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. It essentially gets to the core of what we hope to do—preserve the idea of reading and knowing stories in the hyper-digital world that surrounds us.”
The library, sandwiched among houses in an alley of Shivaji Nagar, opened its doors in the early days of the pandemic. The lockdown put a pause in their operations and donations. “Also, since most of our members are from migrant families, many left the city following the lockdown,” says Parik. “The silver lining was that children found a safe space to be themselves and carry on learning in a community atmosphere during the most difficult phase of their young lives.”
And that is a priority for Parik. “A library must have a safe, welcoming, home-like environment that encourages children to learn freely,” he says. No glaring lights or rigid chairs, and no shushing librarians, too, he adds.
“The most important thing I have learnt from the library is that often simple things make the biggest difference,” says Parik. “As a school teacher, I would often wonder how I could get children to read and learn about the world. Now, it is obvious—give children, young and old, a welcoming space and oodles of books, and they will become readers and learners on their own.”