This space is the third floor in a building that since 1960 has been a landmark called the British Library.
Among the 11 British Libraries across India, this one overlooks the milling traffic on F.C. Road, seeing the city it has been nurturing with knowledge, pass it by.
But once you pass the small portico and the check-in counter, the obstreperous crowds mute and the staid serenity of the tartan wall-to-wall greets you with its chequered blue-beige warps and wefts. With a panoply of 33,000 books, encompassing science, folklore, arts, academics, health, fashion, fiction and what not, an additional 6,000 for children, and some 3,000 DVDs, over ten thousand people in Pune, two-thirds of them in the18-35 age group, prefer it over the drab clutter of other libraries and book stores.
The Library has a well-managed staff under the Manager Kajri Mitra, in whose office is tacked a note. 'I love being here. The ambience and the staff are great'. It’s signed by Shweta, a Library patron.
Open six days a week, the Library organizes at least two events every month for members, the most recent one being Tails of Joy, an Animal Assisted Reading program for dyslexic kids, where readout to a dog, because 'a dog cannot complain, question or pick faults with them'. The Management Week, to help augment personalities and skills of young professionals and students is queued next.
"We would be focussing more on youth-oriented events now", says Mitra who has been here for a year now. `` The Library is not the exclusive club it is perceived as. We welcome everyone from all walks of life, especially vernacular students. We don't have any waiting lists or complex membership procedures", she clarifies, essaying that they are no longer elitist.
The Library is due to undergo a major physical renovation and a metamorphosis in the way things work by next year. "We want to modernize the Library so that the youth relate to it better; do away with the hoary perception that a library is a place where you have to hush and study. We want it to be a place where people can chat over coffee, relax on bean bags, listen to music", says Les Dangerfield of deputy director of British Council who was in the city last week.
"We've had training sessions in business etiquette for the staff", says Mitra.
Having won the National Customer Service award for its amicable services, British Library, Pune, boasts of the highest issues in the entire world, with the clientele peaking to 14,000 in 2004.
As one browses the sections to have a look at thepantheon of tomes, taking in the fluffy toys strewn in the Family Corner section beyond the huge help desk, the academia poring over technical books, the every day crowd in the periodicals section, people at work on PCs and other paraphernalia, your eye catches a slogan on the message board, 'Sing Pune, Zing Pune, British Library for Young Pune'. point noted, you bid your byes to the smiling staff that Shweta 'loves' to be with.