To instill a love for books

From an early age, Mehedi Hasan has been a passionate reader.

Growing up, the bibliophile felt a keen desire to instill his passion for books among others in his village.

It was with this desire that he set up Boi Ghor Pathagar, a public library in his village of Tengorzani under Gaibandha's sadar upazila.

Mehedi, 22, a third-year honours student at Gaibandha Government College, spent Tk 1.5 lakh from his own savings and Tk 90,000 from his parents to set up this library in 2020, with just 177 books from his personal collection initially.

Over the last three years, the library's collection has grown to more than 1,400 books on diverse topics including Liberation War, history, entertainment, politics, economics, linguistics, as well as literary texts -- including novels, essays, biographies, short stories, poetry, and so on.

Daily copies of national and local newspapers are also available.

Now, around 15-20 students from the village come to Mehedi's library every afternoon to read books of their interest.

Mim Akter, a seventh grader and Fardeen Ahmed, a tenth grader, are among those who regularly visit the library.

"Earlier, we needed to go to the district public library in Gaibandha town to get books that we needed, which was not convenient for most of us," said Mim.

"I love to read science fiction. There are many books from the genre here," she added.

"Previously, we did not have access to books apart from our textbooks, until this library opened. Now I can find books on a variety of topics just a few minutes from my house," said Fardeen.

"When most of this generation is addicted to social media, some are still hooked to reading books silently at one corner of a library. Such a sight makes me feel that my efforts are paying off," said Mehedi.

Boi Ghor Pathagar registered with the Department of Public Libraries on September 10, 2022 and the District Social Services Office on June 19 last year.

Mehedi informed that he had started a social media campaign, which helped the library grow.

"Strangers started sending me books, and I also got regular donations from several well-wishers," he said.

Mehedi has also set up three salon libraries, one book corner outside the town and a small library at Newton Preparatory School in Gaibandha town.

He won the second prize in print media/online category in the 2018 Meena Media Awards by Unicef for reporting on children's issues.

 "Besides managing the libraries, Mehedi is also involved in every campaign we do against child marriage, drugs and other social issues. He is also connected to many voluntary organisations in the district," said Md Nasir Uddin Shah, upazila social service officer in Gaibandha Sadar.

"We initially discouraged him, but when we saw that he was very determined, we helped him as far as we could. Now, we are proud of our son for his philanthropic work," said Hannan Mia, Mehedi's father.

Going forward, Mehedi said he wants to set up libraries at every school in Gaibandha district.

"I want to pass on my love for books among the students of primary schools, who are still free from the clutches of social media," he added.