Kalaignar Library- A place to satiate your knowledge appetite

The grand structure of Madurai Kalaignar Centenary Library has reached its final stage of work with the completion of book stacking. The inauguration ceremony of the library which is located in Puthanatham road in Madurai will be held on July 15th.

In 2010, during the celebration of Annadurai Centenary function, the then CM Karunanidhi constructed the Anna Centenary library in Chennai based on the model of Singapore library. Anna Centenary Library is considered to be the second largest library in Asia. Keeping this in mind, last year CM Stalin ordered the construction of Kalaignar library in Madurai at a cost of 99 crores to highlight the centenary celebrations of Karunanidhi.

Total cost of the library 121 crores!

The construction of the library was completed at a cost of 121 crores which includes 10 crores for the purchase of books and 5 crores for the setting up of equipment. The library has an area of approximately 2,13,288 square feet with 6 floors including the basement and the ground floor. We asked about the Kalaignar library to Karu Palaniappan and Solomon Pappaiah.

Firstly Karu Palaniappan said, "Basically I grew up in Simmakkal region which is a central part in Madurai. I started reading weekly and monthly magazines in Simmakkal library which is the central library of the district. This was back in 1989 and 1990s when the district library seemed grand compared to the school libraries. Now, the blissful factor is the construction of the world class Kalaignar library which is more magnificent than the others. There are still 3 years remaining in DMK's rule within which the government should aspire to build atleast one library in each district. This should be done by the DMK government by setting the aim as 39 and the sure shot achievement as atleast 6, said the Director.

He also said that the apt name for the library is Karunanidhi owing to his lifelong contributions to literary works. "My professor in American college when he took classes about the poet E.E. Cummings informed us that one can write a page only if one reads a hundred pages", said the director.

Library in the name of Karunanidhi:

While talking about Palaniappan's professor, he also mentioned that once his professor told them about Walt Whitman who is an American poet while talking about E.E. Cummings. Walt Whitman was the one who introduced modern poetry but he himself had said that people who write modern poetry will increase in number compared to the people who read modern poetry owing to its simplicity. Citing this reason Walt Whitman said that over time the quality of modern poetry will get diluted.

Saying this, Palaniappan's professor explained that when modern poetry first came in Tamil language the poet Neelamani wrote intense poems without compromising the quality. Since I haven't heard about the name Neelamani before, I started searching for his literary works in my college and district library. I had to go to the Annam publications run by poet Meera to get the literary works of Neelamani due to the unavailability of his works in college and district library. So, for people like us who have studied in situations like this, the opening of such a grand library in Madurai is such a big thing that too in the name of Karunanidhi, says the director.

Next Solomon Pappaiah said that, soon Kalaignar Centenary library will be opened in Madurai. This is exciting news because the arts of life are totally 64(Aaya Kalaigal) and science has also attained tremendous growth today. To learn about the arts and scientific advancements we need books. Affluent people have the means to purchase books but that is not the case for impoverished people. Even if the impoverished people buy the books they do not enjoy the luxury of having an isolated and peaceful environment at home to study.

The constraints for poor:

Solomon Pappaiah said that during his childhood he had the desire to read a lot. The financial situation at home did not support the desire. I had the means to read in the school library but the books cannot be taken home in order to prevent damage to books. The facilities of private libraries were also there but it required payment of fees which again was not possible considering the situation at home.

Sometimes, we will borrow the books from some of our affluent friends who have the ability to get the books by paying the amount. The non-availability of crime novels and science based books was a major drawback at that time. From the library in Madurai Thiagarajar college we can take a maximum of upto 2 books to read at home. So basically we had the desire to read but we didn't have the means or facility for it. Today's scenario is different. It gives me immense pleasure to just look at the grandeur structure of Kalaignar Centenary library, says Solomon Pappaiah. Various facilities have been made in the library by CM Stalin which is equal to the global standards. One such facility is the department wise stacking of books for the easy accessibility by youngsters as well as old-aged people.

Books can be bought but where to study?

So many villages are there in and around Cumbum, Theni, Sivakasi Virudhunagar, Aruppukkottai, Ramanathapuram, Dindigul. Keeping in mind the region's graduates, students and other people who have the hunger for knowledge, Kalaignar library was constructed in Madurai. Parents are more concerned about accumulating property and wealth for their children which eventually will bring strife between them. A particular generation should be more concerned about passing on wisdom to the next generation which can be done only by books. This is the idea behind the construction of the library.

In ancient times, people came from China to study in the Nalanda University in Bihar which had one of the biggest libraries in the world. Alexandria University in Egypt also had an exceptional library. I have visited some foreign libraries like this and was overwhelmed by the facilities available in those libraries. Big libraries like this make us understand the reality that still so many things are there to learn. Visiting temples will help us achieve spiritual satisfaction but visiting libraries will help us realise the miniscule nature of our knowledge. On the account of this realisation only CM Stalin has constructed such a wonderful and grand library with global standards, says Solomon Pappaiah.