Bangladesh taxman runs library for the poor

RAJSHAHI, Bangladesh, Mar 5 (Reuters) Twice a week elderly Polan Sarkar sits among poor villagers at a rural market with a bagful of books which he lends for free.

Every week he also walks through villages, handing out books to housewives and extolling the merits of reading.

Polan, 86, is a tax collector at Bausa village in Rajshahi district, 270 km north-west of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka. His passion for books, and his dismay at the low literacy rates of his impoverished country, spurred him to set up what is essentially a library for the poor.

Ekeing out a living from his rural government job, this father of six never finished school. Asked what made him distribute books, he chuckles: ''Maybe the deprivation at my childhood.'' ''Through reading I have enlightened myself and now my mission is to enlighten others,'' Polan added.

About half of Bangladesh's population of over 140 million is illiterate. In villages, those who can read rarely have the time -- or the money -- to spend on books, a fact that Polan knows all too well.

Polan lost his father as a baby and has lived in poverty for most of his life. Before taking up his current job in 1962, he worked as a clown and wrote scripts for village theatres. What little money he saved was spent on books.

''I never had a shelf to keep the books at my home. They were all around -- on my bed, on the floor and everywhere,'' Polan said. ''I could not attend school beyond the primary level but I always felt an urge inside for reading.'' Polan now has a collection that includes some 2,000 books -- all in Bengali -- from local and international writers. Recently, popular television programme ''Ittadi'' or ''Et cetra'', ran a documentary on Polan and gifted him two wooden book shelves.

Polan flips through every book before handing it out. ''My habit of reading will never die,'' he said.

Some books never come back, but Polan is not bothered.

''But I don't resent if my readers often do not return my books.

I say to myself, it is better the books are still being read by someone. This serves my purpose, in some way,'' he said.

''I have seen the pangs of poverty and pains of unfulfilled desires that many villagers suffer, and I am trying to console them through reading,'' he said.

Polan is a hit with the thousands who throng the market, where he sits on a wooden bench, his trademark bag beside him.

''His books are the only stuff that change hands in this market without money. He has been doing this for decades,'' one villager said.

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