Chenkalchoola youths demand library in colony

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The youth of Chenkalchoola, perhaps the most dreaded lot in the city, have begun a signature campaign to secure a library and Internet centre within their colony.Their motivation: Scheduled Caste Minister A P Anilkumar, while announcing his 100-Day Action Plan, said he will set up ‘Vignan Wadis’ or library-cum-Internet centres in SC colonies. Their belief: Books and computer literacy will throw open a new world for the children and teenagers in the colony who are doomed to exist in an atmosphere of crime, narcotics, booze and sloth."A library will change things in our colony. We have experienced it before,’’ said Rakesh, a handicapped young autorickshaw driver. In October 2006, Rakesh’s brother Rajeev, a state hockey player, had set up the Rajajinagar Reading Library (RRL). The library functioned in a rented flat in the first floor of one of the concrete Baker-model structures within the colony. It had a spacious reading room, a computer room and a tiled open space for children to play or watch television.Rajeev knew the pulse of his people. This is what he told Express then: ‘’I just want the children in my colony to walk up the steps. First, they will want to watch television and play games because I have arranged carroms for them, but, gradually, I am sure they will come in and feel the books arranged inside.’’ He was bang on. Initially, the residents were hesitant. But a month after he began the library, over 100 families in the colony sent their children to the library after school hours. First, they only wanted to watch television and play but, as Rajeev predicted, they slipped inside the reading room and began checking out the books.A foreign couple Rob and Sara Marvin had helped Rajeev organise the library. The Rotary Club was also a major sponsor. ‘’Rajeev always kept the place clean and he tied ropes around the parapet so as to give the children who play on the verandah more security. Parents even began forcing their children to go to the library after school,’’ Rakesh said.  Suddenly, five months after he opened the library, Rajeev died of chicken pox. "The last thing he told our Amma was to make sure that the library was kept clean for the children,’’ Rakesh said. Rakesh and his mother kept Rajeev’s dream alive for some more time. But the owner of the flat, though Rajeev had a five-year agreement, along with certain vested interests, forced them out. And two years after Rajeev breathed his last, his dream too died a premature death."Ever since, we have been on the lookout for a place to restart the library. Somehow, we couldn’t. But a library is important, it is the only way to divert our youth from the influence of liquor and ganja,’’ said Suresh, Rakesh’s friend who runs the Sargam Arts Club in the colony. Rakesh and his friends at the Sargam Club are going around the houses in the colony seeking signatures of parents on a long sheet of paper. ‘’We are collecting the signatures to present before our MLA V S Sivakumar. We already have signatures of 100 families,’’ Rakesh said.Minister Anilkumar, while promising ‘Vignan Wadis’, had said that it was up to the MLA to select an SC settlement in his/her respective constituency for setting up the facility. Sivakumar, now Transport Minister, is willing to help. ‘’If these boys are so eager, I am with them,’’ he told City Express.