Arlekar's Onam gift to Malayalees

Lok Bhavan is here with some news to brighten Malayali minds during the Onam season. When the Malayalam language and cultural virtues were combined in the imagination of Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, a library became a reality, and that too named after Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan, the father of Modern Malayalam Literature. It is not a government department or a university, but a library named after Ezhuthachan, starting inside a constitutional institution, is something that gives pride to all Malayalees.

Lok Bhavan has clarified that the library will function with a modest collection of about ten thousand books. Of these, more than six thousand are English books, and the rest are Malayalam books. These tomes cover certain areas, such as literature, history, culture, and social life. Beyond just reading, there will be books for serious study and research. The entire Kerala is welcoming the Governor's announcement to start the library on land transformed from the private property of the Governor or Lok Bhavan.

Kerala will celebrate its 70th year in two months. In the last seven decades since the birth of a united Kerala on November 1, 1956, the state grew as a model for the entire country not only in terms of language, literature and cultural prestige, but also in terms of educational and cultural progress. The moral, ideological and intellectual energy and fuel for this was provided by Kerala's commendable literacy statistics and the renaissance movements that made the state a sprawling hub for libraries.

Maharaja Visakham Thirunal established the first library in Travancore, 'Suguna Poshini', in Vanchiyoor, Thiruvananthapuram in 1894. In 1945, the Travancore Library Association was established in Ambalappuzha. P.N. Panicker, who took the initiative for this, later travelled throughout Kerala with the slogan 'Read and Grow'. Now, with more than 8500 libraries, the Kerala State Library Council is the largest cultural movement in the state. The role played by the library movement here in the path of progress of Kerala is inexplicable. Now, the library in the Lok Bhavan will energise the cultural movements of Kerala. The caution Arlekar displayed while urgently coming to the aid of a person who collapsed in front of the Lok Bhavan the other day showed his humanitarian instinct, and then came the novel initiative to start a library in the Lok Bhavan.

A former governor of Himachal Pradesh and Bihar, Arlekar has served as a minister and speaker in Goa. He was the speaker when the Goa Legislative Assembly became the first paperless assembly in the country. Arlekar, with his charisma and statesmanship, has proven to be an unsung hero who pushes for development while adhering to the nationalistic ethos. We congratulate the Kerala Governor on this occasion.