Knowledge Portals that I like visiting (part 3)

 Kishore C.S. (August 2001)

 Read Part 1 of this article

Read Part 2 of this article

 Libraries in Madras

After M.Tech I joined Ramco Systems in Madras. As first few days at job I had to start learning various aspects and at this time I read a few good books from our company library.

Our office in Anna Salai was next to British Council Library. I joined British Council Library within two months of joining job in April 1994. I started loaning books mainly related Management. I could not get many fiction books there. I used to visit the library on Saturday afternoon as our office used to work for half day on Saturday. This library was good and contained good number of books related to Management. I used to spend sometime going through periodicals. I also bought some books from this library where they had a sale of some old books.

During the same year, I started visiting R K Math in Mandaveli on every sunday. There I found a good collection of spiritual books. I became member of this and started reading more spiritual/philosophy and a few psychology related books. I used to visit this library on every Sunday. I spend half an hour or so there before going to the Sunday Lecture in the auditorium. This library is well visited and I suggested to one of my friends to donate his books which he is not using. He did donate quite a books to this library.

After my office moved to a different location I discontinued my membership in British Council Library and as I could not frequently visit RK Math, I had to stop loaning books from there also.

Next we found a rental library Eloor which was located in T.Nagar. This had good number of books having latest fiction, management books and also other sections. We started visiting this rental library and for over 8 months we had our membership there. At this time my wife also got into habit of reading books and we used to rent 5-6 books every visit.

Fremont Main Library (In US)

Here I am after all these years continuing my association with libraries in US. It was one of the first things we did after we settled down. Library is located with 2 miles of our apartment and membership is free. We went and started my membership and started loaning books from there. One advantage here is you can also rent video, dvd, audio cassettes. Library also has internet facility.

My Personal Library

Over and above the libraries I visited, during 1994-2000 I build my own personal library. I had my biggest book collection during this period and my book case (specially ordered so that I can arrange all these books) consisted of 5 shelves and it was filled with books. I bought almost all books that were on sale in RKMath book stall. During my visits to the Math, I used to purchase books regularly and over a period of time my collection became big. I also bought management books related to time management, books by Peter drucker and they all went into my personal collection. Of course, I had to leave most of the books back in India when I moved to US last year.

Summary

I have recollected major libraries I have visited till now in these three articles. Each library provided me an opportunity of quenching my thirst for knowledge and my reading habit at various stages. My initial reading mainly consisted of reading fiction books from select authors. After getting into job, I found books related to management very interesting and as my mental outlook changed my reading moved onto philosophical and spiritual aspects. I always had a book to read with me thanks to my association with libraries. I love reading books and I found so far I was reading the right book at the right time. I love getting lost in the book I reading any time.

 (This article ends the series I wrote in 3 parts)