Bhubaneswar: Bakul Foundation organised their third edition of the Human Library at Café 16 Satyanagar in Bhubaneswar on Thursday. Bakul, which has been leading a library movement in Odisha, is known for its innovations in creating an interest in stories through Storytelling Festivals and events such as Reading Marathons and Blind Date with books.
The Human Library or the Living Library has been an interesting idea in which readers borrow books of their choice, read and return them in good condition, after which they are borrowed by other interested readers. The difference between a regular library and a Human Library being that the books are real human beings with interesting stories to tell.
Sujit Mahapatra, the founder of Bakul Foundation and the Curator of the Human Library says, “This is a very interesting concept that started in Denmark in 2011. Bakul had done it for the 1st time in 2011, when a visiting Estonian volunteer, Diana Tamm had shared the idea with us, and had curated the 1st human library in Bhubaneswar. Bakul had done it again in Café 16 as part of the Bhubaneswar Food Fest and this year also it is a part of the Bhubaneswar Food Fest curated by FoodFindo.
The rules of the Human Library sound like the rules of any library except that when seen in the context of human books, they sound funny. For example, one rule says that, “Some pages of a book may not open. Do not try to open with force, as it may get torn.” Another says, “You must return the book in good condition without any wear or tear (pun intended).
One of the main objectives of the Human Library worldwide is to break stereotypes that people may have of other types of people. By talking to the person, they can break these stereotypes. “Hence, I have tried to bring in diversity, with Meera Parida representing the transgender community, Sruti Mohapatra representing the disabled, and Prashant Maharana, a former drug addict working towards drug addiction”, Sujit said.
He added, “I have also curated the books to represent stereotypes in other ways. For example, the stereotype about cops being trigger happy broken with Sagarika Nath, SP, Khurda whose story is that of a crusader, or the stereotype of people in fashion being shallow with Ankita, a former Miss India finalist passionately working on Climate Action.
The readers, who signed up for the Human Library had to give preferences and on the basis of their preferences, they were given books to read. If a book was already booked, they could reserve the book, and read it after it was returned. Two people were allowed to share a book at the same time. Each person got to read multiple books during the Library Session. There were 12 books in total and about 30 readers to read them.
Both the books and the readers had a great experience. The books enjoyed being read by the readers and took interest in reading their readers also, and said they learnt a lot from the readers. Santrupthy Das, an origami artist, was happy that her reader taught her a couple of new tricks with paper. Sruti Mohapatra said, “She had been a reader all her life and it was amazing to be turned into a book. This should be taken to schools and colleges.”
Meera Parida was not sure if people would want to know about the life of transgenders. She was happy that her readers knew about her and were curious to know more about her struggles. As Sagarika Nath said, “this was a wonderful way to create a very healthy society where people understand perspectives and thinking of other humans.”.
