Chennai’s Vyasarpadi embraces reading revolution through community library

For 23 years, a small corner of Chennai’s Vyasarpadi has been transforming into a makeshift library once a week. This week, it is Satyamoorthy Nagar Park’s turn.

With books tucked inside transparent pouches tied to tree branches and magazine racks overflowing with journals, readers huddle together for another session of reading. Among them is 43-year-old B Meenakshi, trying hard to recollect the title of her favourite story. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, she finally says, her face lighting up as she remembers it. Being a school dropout and a domestic worker in Vyasarpadi, Meenakshi did not have many opportunities to pick up a book. Today, she has read 27 titles. All of this is thanks to Aarvam, an NGO that has been striving to create change in the community through a reading revolution. What started initially as a mobile library with books loaded in a van has transformed into a community library and reading circle.

“I started reading during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Back then, I enjoyed watching television serials and wasn’t interested in books. Then, children from Aarvam’s tuition centre brought me a few books and persuaded me to give reading a try, to which I finally agreed,” said Meenakshi, recalling her journey with books.

Vyasarpadi has a significant population of residents from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, including families who have migrated from different villages and those who have been resettled in the area. The attempt is to allow for reading to exist as a recreational activity here. The group meets once a week and their collection includes books written by Tamil authors and translated works from around the world.

As the reading circle settles down in silence, 85-year-old Muthuswamy starts browsing through the magazine rack. Expressing his strong preference, he says, “I only read literature and poetry. I won’t read books related to politics or the government. Today I saw a book by Karl Marx titled The Communist Manifesto. I won’t like it.”

Commending the efforts of volunteers organising the reading circle, Muthuswamy adds that the organisation is doing something that many wealthy people would hesitate to do.

Heralding change

Back in 1984, S Shanmugam, a resident of Vyasarpadi began Aarvam Bro Siga Animation Centre. He found the state of education in the community to be poor. The high school dropout rates in the neighbourhood egged him further. The reading circle was born as a result of need, rather than a want.

“Thanks to the library, I can teach my children general knowledge and politics,” says 28-year-old homemaker Sreeja Udayakumar. According to her, Aarvam’s community library has made reading and learning affordable. While she reads self-help and fiction, others in the community are drawn towards thrillers and mystery novels.

“I used to think school books were my whole life,” says 15-year-old M Deepan. Listing Maaya Manthra Kadhaikal as his favourite book, Deepan talks of how this view has changed. He expresses his deep love for the Tamil language. “No matter how many languages there are, our mother tongue comes first, right?” he says. Deepan says his school library has books related to the syllabus, but fiction is hard to find.

“Most parents in the neighbourhood have not received any formal education. However, what we are noticing is that several first-generation graduates — their children — are turning up at the circle. The goal is to bring the culture of reading to a community that has been consistently neglected for years,” Shanmugam says.

Aarvam began in 1984 after S Shanmugam, a resident, wanted reading to be accessible to the marginalised, particularly the neighbourhood’s dropouts