Yesterday, I chanced upon a listing of my latest fantasy thriller ‘The Secret of God’s Son’ on the Easwari Library website! I was thrilled to see this new link between me and an old friend and searched further. I found two more of my books in the library’s listings ― ‘Pradyumna: Son of Krishna’ and ‘The Madras Mangler’. Who would have thought when I picked through the dusty shelves of Easwari some 30 years back that I would enter their magical circle of authors? Life has indeed come full circle.

Those were the days before Amazon and Flipkart and the humongous world of online shopping. We did not have money to buy books and borrowed them instead from public libraries and so called ‘lending libraries’. There were no computers then to tell you which books were available and the human brain performed these tasks with superb flexibility. Palani, the owner of Easwari, knew me and also the kind of books I read. He would bring out new arrivals in those genres that he kept hidden away in a drawer as soon as he saw me enter. When we brought him a stack of books that we wanted to borrow, he would flip through them quickly, sort of ‘weigh’ them in his hands and pronounce ‘Fifty rupees!’ We would pay without demur and scurry away with a smile on our faces, thrilled at the prospect of digging in. My daughter would pick up her loot from the Sweet Valley Twins series by Francine Pascal. There were always one or two new ones, considering that she wrote some 100-odd books in this series!

A friend asked for Irving Wallace’s ‘Sunday Gentleman’, a lively account of the strange people and places that the author had encountered in his life. The book was not be found in bookstores or even in pavement shops which often provided hidden treasures. ‘I remember seeing it somewhere,’ said Palani as he searched through huge piles of books, finally coming up with a dusty copy. We even heard that Ms J Jayalalitha, now Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, was a member of Easwari. That was no surprise, considering that everyone knows that she is an avid reader and that she lives not too far away.

I would exchange greetings with Palani when we passed each other on Santhome Beach, though I was quite startled the first time I saw him there. It was difficult to reconcile myself to the idea of his existence outside the musty environs of his library, you see! This personal touch was one reason why Easwari became a popular hangout for students and housewives, office-goers and kids. Another reason was of course the mind-boggling collection of books in the library, in English, Tamil, Hindi and other languages. Plus Amar Chitra Kathas, Archie comics and a whole host of children’s fiction.

Established in 1955 on a quiet, leafy road in Chennai ― Lloyd’s Road (Avvai Shanmugham Salai) ― Easwari is still going strong, with ten branches in the city and the website that allows you to borrow books and have them delivered home. The taciturn Palani still greets old customers with a small smile and a nod, though he has handed over the reins to his sons, Satish (a student of mine from my teaching days), and Saravanan. (Palani with his sons pic courtesy: Mint)

Thank you, Easwari, for providing fertile soil for so many dreams!