For love of the WRITTEN WORD

United in their passion for books and stories, these five ordinary folk are on a mission to spread the joy of reading with their unique libraries

- V. Kumara Swamy

THE PUSHCART LIBRARY

For years, journalist Sheik Sadiq Ali has dabbled in various businesses—a matrimonial bureau, real estate, but his greatest happiness came from the children who rushed over to receive the books he distributed from his pushcart or thopudu bandi in Telugu.

As a one-time book-retailer, he realized that many children couldn’t afford books so he decided to distribute them for free. In 2015, Ali began travelling around Hyderabad handing out poetry and storybooks among children. He then started taking his mobile library beyond the city too.

At 57, Ali claims to have travelled more than 3,000 kms pushing his cart across Telangana on foot, even in the remote interiors of the state. “I have distributed books worth more than ₹50 lakh so far. I have also set up around 150 libraries in village schools, panchayats and youth clubs,” he says. Ali says that 90 per cent of whatever he and his wife, Usha Dayal, a government servant, earn is used to buy books to give away.” We are a childless couple, so whenever we see any young person who has a hunger for knowledge, we consider these children our own and want to help them grow,” he says.