Now, the young and old, avid readers and passers-by, authors and poets, writers and storytellers, professionals and layman, can read books from their vicinity thus saving the effort of going to a library. You can read, request and borrow books from your residential areas as the National Library has started a Mobile Van with over 2,000 books of different languages in it.
This mobile van consists of books in English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati language. There are books ranging from varied genres like fiction, non-fiction, science, general knowledge, stories, biographies, children’s books, self-help and many more. Anyone can take a membership of Rs 50 per month for children or senior citizens with a deposit of Rs 100-200 in order to borrow books from the mobile library. The membership fees for adults is Rs 100 per month. There are discounts for senior citizens.
The idea is to encourage the culture and practice of reading books, says Pramod Mahadik, General Secretary of the National Library, Bandra. Mahadik says, “The practice of reading books is dying every day. We want to keep the culture and practice alive. If people do not have the time to come to a library, we want to take the library to their homes. We aim to encourage children, youth and senior citizens to read and borrow as many books as possible from our mobile library.”
If you want some books, you can put in a request to the national library via phone or email or through the website. The mobile library halts for over an hour every day of the week from 11 am to 8 pm at different locations in Mumbai. Mahadik adds, “We get demands from schools, colleges, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other sansthas. Our mobile library is halted every day at different locations like Linking Road, Reclamation, Kurla, Goregaon, Mahim, Bandra Talao and other spots. We are flexible in working according to the demand of the people. So, if people want the mobile library to visit their vicinity they can just inform us. We can also arrange for specific books based on public demand.”
The National Library, Bandra has completed 102 years and is now slowly moving towards digital data and bookkeeping. You can find the Mobile library at Bandra Reclamation (near Ganesh mandir) on Fridays from 6:15 pm to 7:30 pm.
