now a days, on walking into the british library in thiruvananthapuram i get a strange feeling of familiariy - i have seen these types of periodicals before; but NOT in a scholastic library!
yes, i think i remember the place now:
long back i once had the occassion to sit in the waiting room of a posh hair dressing saloon in the city for a rather long period - i was waiting for my (then) friend to get his hair done!
long back i once had the occassion to sit in the waiting room of a posh hair dressing saloon in the city for a rather long period - i was waiting for my (then) friend to get his hair done!
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post script
071226
071226
they are closing down the british library in thiruvananthapuram - i got a letter from the library manager about the closure.
do i regret it ? well not in its present state. i have long stopped going there and had no intention of wasting thousand rupees on extending the membership.
i have benefited a lot from the british library trivandrum, in my student days. for one thing i used to depend a lot on the library for books on the subjects i was supposed to be studying. but more than any thing else, i remember going through a worse ordeal than the one i am facing right now in those days when i was a callow youth; isolation, ostracization and what not! and the only company i had were books -from this particular library. i think i was lucky that way for i had the best minds in the world for company!
i used to really read in those days and my bedside lamp used to be on till early morning hours - and as usual the "intelligentsia" used to take it ("insomnia") as another sign of my insanity.
it is from the british library i got my first exposure to great journals like nature and bmj and such and it was a pity to see magazines like vogue and body building usurping their places. and that was what prompted me to write the above blog.
for the pseudo-intellectuals of thiruvananthapuram, membership of the british library is a fashion statement and i am afraid they are the only ones going to miss the library in its present state.
do i regret it ? well not in its present state. i have long stopped going there and had no intention of wasting thousand rupees on extending the membership.
i have benefited a lot from the british library trivandrum, in my student days. for one thing i used to depend a lot on the library for books on the subjects i was supposed to be studying. but more than any thing else, i remember going through a worse ordeal than the one i am facing right now in those days when i was a callow youth; isolation, ostracization and what not! and the only company i had were books -from this particular library. i think i was lucky that way for i had the best minds in the world for company!
i used to really read in those days and my bedside lamp used to be on till early morning hours - and as usual the "intelligentsia" used to take it ("insomnia") as another sign of my insanity.
it is from the british library i got my first exposure to great journals like nature and bmj and such and it was a pity to see magazines like vogue and body building usurping their places. and that was what prompted me to write the above blog.
for the pseudo-intellectuals of thiruvananthapuram, membership of the british library is a fashion statement and i am afraid they are the only ones going to miss the library in its present state.
viceman
071226
