I have always heard from elders that books are the best friend of any man. And during my formative years, I did realize that it was true. In books I always found solace. They always provided me with some or the other food for thought. I enjoyed the company of books like anything. But there was a problem. One cannot buy all the books by himself. Nor are all books available in the market. So I was eagerly looking for any alternative where availability and financial constraints didn't hamper my chances of getting and reading quality books. It was then I came across the public and cooperative libraries. They were cheap. They had large collection of books ranging from criminology journalto scientific ones.

One such public library was in near vicinity of my house. Its operation time was from morning 9 AM to evening 6 PM. The collection of books that it had was commendable. It charged a monthly subscription fees, which was very cheap and nominal. It was initially started by a lawyer to provide the needy people with necessary materials particularly related to law like criminology journal, case histories and other similar stuffs. But when he saw the response, he visualized the potential of such initiative. Then he decided to expand the domain of the library. So initially what was serving as a store house of criminology journal, law books and related legal matters, now started keeping materials pertaining to other streams like engineering, medicine, construction and so on. The result was a manifolds increase in the readership and membership numbers for that library.

I started going there for finding few good and rare books ranging from subjects related to literature to technology. It was a great help for me. As a result, I got a chance to spend time with few of the most reputed authors of all time. This wouldn't have been possible otherwise. And so I too developed a possible appetite for writing. Today whatever I have achieved, a big part of it I owe to such libraries. For me they were and always will be a temple of education and enlightenment. They have been like a shady tree, where I can get down and take a refreshing break and then continue ahead with my journey of life. A great initiative it was and even today, it is still standing tall and serving its purpose of satisfying the knowledge hunger of hundreds of people coming to its door.