Bakul Library

On behalf of Bakul Foundation, UNICEF India and Youth4Water, I invite you to *VOICES & VIEWS: ODISHA YOUTH AT COP* on Tuesday, *9th January, today* at the , 16 Satyanagar *at 5PM* in which young volunteers of BAKUL (Deepsha Dhal) and the Youth4WaterPlus network, who had attended the UN Climate Change Conference (COP) in Dubai, will share their reflections from their experiences at COP.

Good Morning. Today is the 1st Sunday of the New Year, and we continue our Sunday Storytelling and Craft session for children at 5PM at the Bakul Library, 16 Satyanagar, and I am going to be the storyteller today.

I have been a RELUCTANT STORYTELLER. Hope to change that this year.

Children and Parents are welcome

Was happy going down memory lane in this interview talking about how Bakul Foundation started with some interesting tidbits about that time (how the name changed from Swapna Foundation to Bakul), the story behind how storytelling took root in Bhubaneswar and led to Bhubaneswar Festival of Storytelling etc

ଲୋକଙ୍କ ମିଳିତ ଉଦ୍ୟମରେ କଣ ହୋଇପାରିବ | "ପରିଚୟ..." EP-46 with Sujit Mohaptra | #NilaDrisayaLive ଓଁ ଶ୍ରୀ ନିଳାଦ୍ରୀଶାୟ ନମଃ "Credits__Programming: Hritik Roshan Swain Mixing & Mastering: B.D & Sarada Prasad DashAnchor : RobinRecording Studio : NilaDrisaya M...

Its Christmas season, the season of joy and festivities. Don't miss this magical opportunity to celebrate the magic of Christmas through the power of storytelling!

Meet Santa Claus herself and listen to her tales of merriment and cheer!

Storytelling, Carols and Crafts on 17th December with Arunima Gomes
and Storytelling with Surprises (that’s what Christmas is all about, isn’t it) on 24th December with Patnaik
5PM at the Bakul Library, 16 Satyanagar, Bhubaneswar

The Bakul Young Adult Book Club meets on the 1st Saturday of every month at 5PM at the Bakul Library, 16 Satyanagar, Bhubaneswar.

The Book Club for teenagers and young readers meets to discuss books and authors the members have read, recommend or give feedback/criticism on books.

The August meeting is today, 6th August at 5PM.

Artists of Bakul: Birendra Pani

Bakul started as a platform for people to volunteer and Bakul's engagement with art and artists started with pani joining the movement from the beginning.

He had supported the artistic work at the library and given the idea of installing a Mirror at the entrance that would create an illusion of the garden outside extending inside as well. For Bakul's 10th birthday in 2017, he went a step further and painted half a plane. The plane was complete with its reflection in the mirror. He went on to create murals using the fixtures in the backyard. You can see his murals.

On 18th-19th March, 2015, the first Public Libraries Conference was organized in Delhi by the Govt of India in partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and it was a moment of pride that the Bakul Library was chosen as a model and best practice in India.

It was a great validation that what Bakul has been doing is the general consensus globally on how to make libraries vibrant community spaces, where community members share knowledge, skills and co-create at a time when libraries are increasingly threatened with information available at the fingertips.

Many people know that the Bakul Library in Satyanagar, Bhubaneswar is a fantastic children's Library. What many do not know that the Library also has a wonderful collection of books for adults as well though the pride is the children's collection.

We have a decent collection of translations of Odia literature. One of the unique books there is a recent donation of Fakir Mohan Senapati's classic short story, "REBATI" published in the original and in translations in 35 different languages including many different Indian languages and different European and Asian languages as well.

It is quite appropriate to talk about this book today not only because Fakir Mohan Senapati, the father of modern Odia fiction, was born on 13 January but also because today being Makar Sankranti, which is celebrated by speakers of many different languages in India.

This book containing the first Odia short story in 36 languages edited by Manu Dash was donated by a well wisher, the well known writer Ratnamala Swain just as all the other books at all the Bakul Libraries have been donated by other well wishers.

If you have not read this classic, read it NOW in a language of your choice. The story advocates girls education way back in the late 19th century in a time of pandemic (the cholera pandemic then).

Have you checked out the Bakul Library that opened at Ekamra Haat in Bhubaneswar on Children's Day (14th November)? Please share your pics if you have.

The library has been housed in an old beverages refrigerator, which has art on it using patachitra motifs depicting a Nabagunjara, the famous fantastic creature of the Odia imagination, reading a book.

Storytime @ 9 by BAKUL is back with its 3rd and final Season. We have already traveled to 37 countries in 44 sessions with the finest storytellers from those countries. We will close the series with 50 countries.
The 3rd and final Season resumes with one of the finest storytellers in the world, Antonio Rocha from Brazil.
Antonio Rocha is an award winning internationally acclaimed storyteller. His unique fusion of mime and spoken word has been featured at premier storytelling events across the world. With his tenor voice, realistic sound effects, unique characters and mesmerizing moves, Antonio entertains kids and adults alike with his funny stories.
You can listen to him LIVE this Saturday, 2nd October at 9PM on the following social media channels of Bakul Foundation.
Facebook.com/bakulfoundation
Twitter.com/bakulfoundation
YouTube.com/bakulfoundation

"IF YOU HAVE A GARDEN AND A LIBRARY, YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED", Cicero had famously said. And you have them both at the Bakul Library in Forest Park. What then are you waiting for?

Go down to Biju Patnaik Park either between 7AM to 10AM or between 4PM to 7PM and enjoy Reading with a View.

2 pairs of jeans had traveled from the Gosford Library in Sidney to the Bakul Library inspired by the novel and film, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Our Volunteers and children got working and used a variety of art forms such as Patachitra, Saura tribal Art, embroidery, kantha etc and the transformed jeans were then sent to Sidney, where they were displayed at the Annual Conference of the Academy of Children's Writers and Illustrators.

Today was the day the 2 pairs were shipped from the Bakul LIbrary to Sidney. Hoping we will soon have many such collaborations with libraries across the world.

8 years back on this day, the Bakul Library had a Meet the Author session with Giselle Mehta, the former civil servant, who gave up her career for a life of exploration, theatre and writing. She is an Associate of Trinity College, London in Speech and Drama.

She read out from her first novel, Blossom Showers that is set in the town of Manjooran that bears resemblance to modern Mangalore and covers the saga of a family over 100 years across 3 generations of the Cordelia family.

The audience, mostly comprising volunteers and booklovers had a wonderful interaction with the author, who was visiting Bhubaneswar.

We are looking forward to things getting better and organizing more such Author Meets at the Library.

On the occasion of the 75th Independence Day, Sujit Mahapatra reflects on the role of libraries in the freedom struggle and why libraries are important in a democracy.

https://www.odishabytes.com/why-libraries-are-the-lungs-of-a-democracy/

Why Libraries Are The Lungs Of A Democracy? - Odisha Bytes The 75th Independence Day yesterday was a momentous occasion, but the momentum was slightly missing for such an occasion because of the COVID pandemic. On this occasion, I would like to reflect on the role that libraries played in our Independence struggle and why libraries can be called the lungs o...

Yesterday was National Librarians Day. At a time when the role and relevance of libraries is being questioned as information is available to people at the finger tips, Sujit Mahapatra writes about the contemporary thinking about libraries and how the story of the Bakul Library is just that. https://www.odishabytes.com/redesigning-libraries-for-today-the-bakul-story-1/

Redesigning Libraries For Today: The Bakul Story - Odisha Bytes August 12 is celebrated every year as the National Librarians Day to commemorate the birthday of S R Ranganathan, considered the father of library science in India. This former Professor of Library Science at BHU and Delhi University is known for two notable contributions, his Five Laws of Library S...

We used to have storytelling sessions at the Bakul Library before the pandemic and there was always a concerted effort to get tellers from other countries and other cultures. Mostly our storytellers would be expat volunteers based for a few months in Odisha, whom we would pull to tell stories.

Sometimes, we have had guests from the U.S. Consulate General Hyderabad telling stories. On one such occasion, Mr Michael Yoder, Consul Chief told the story of the Ladybug from Eric Carle's beautiful book.

Belated Happy Friendship Day to everyone. As you know, we have been promoting friendship with trees and for many years, the poster we have been using to promote gifting of plants on Friendship Day is a wonderful illustration by Debasmita Dasgupta.

Did you know that this is from a lovely bilingual picture book (English- Odia) for children written and illustrated by Debasmita and published by Bakul. Check out the book, when you come to Bakul. If you want to buy copies, you can DM us.

As we navigate our way through a medical thriller with its conspiracy theories about bioterrorism, and the race for the vaccine that we have been through, an interesting novel to read or reread would be the medical thriller based on the discovery of the cause of malaria in India in the late 19th century.

The novel, we are talking about is The Calcutta Chromosome, a novel of fevers, delirium and of discovery by our Author of the Month, Amitav Ghosh.
Set in an unspecified time in the future, this medical thriller takes the readers through a wondrous journey of time. The narrative is suffused with science, myth, nihilism, philosophy and superstition.

The story starts with Antar, the Egyptian-American protagonist of this intricately planned literary thriller, who works as a peon in a large business in near-future New York. His duty is to keep an eye on his powerful computer as it sorts through the inventory of a global library of commonplace items; at the same time, the machine keeps an eye on him to ensure he is fully focused on its monotonous, mysterious mission. The terminal freezes when it comes across a damaged ID card, which turns out to have belonged to Murugan, an acquaintance of Antar's who went missing in Calcutta years ago, which make it all the more interesting, as Ross did his research in India as well. Antar discovers later that Murugan had systematically discovered a major secret lying underneath Ross' malaria study - an underground scientific and mystical movement that might provide perpetual life — through his investigation into old and forgotten documents and phone messages.

Check out this early novel and other novels of Amitav Ghosh at the Bakul Library.

Eric Stanley Gardner is one of the most successful mystery writers of all time. Most of his reputation stems from Perry Mason and other memorable characters that he created.

In the early 1920s Gardner, who was a practicing lawyer, got bored of legal practice and started writing western and mystery stories for magazines. Eventually he was turning out and selling the equivalent of a short novel every three nights while still practicing law during the business day. With the sale of his first novel in 1933 he gave up the practice of law and devoted himself to full-time writing.

One of his writings is The Case of the Buried Clock. When the evidence on the murder of an embezzler points to the victim's wife, her father makes a point of calling in Perry Mason for help. It's up to the legendary legal eagle to unravel the case's most baffling mystery--a buried clock at the scene of the crime. But as time runs short, the ticking of the clock sounds more and more like the rattling of family skeletons that everyone wants silenced.

Gardner was no prose stylist, but he could concoct and spin a yarn so fast-moving and filled with legal tricks and shocking revelations it easily holds its own with today’s legal thrillers.

We honour him on his birthday, the 17th July.

At Bakul, we strongly believe that in order to create readers, i.e. develop a love for reading among children, who have not yet developed a love for reading, libraries are important. They are important because they offer a wide array of books from which every child will most likely discover books that get them hooked. They are also important because the love for reading is infectious. A space, where others are also reading motivates a child to also pick up a book and discover the pleasures the others seem to be getting.

The libraries, therefore, need to be attractive spaces that are bright, vibrant and inviting that can have a transformative effect on young children. All the Bakul libraries have the stamp of being attractive inviting spaces.

Now, on the invitation of the SC and ST Development Department of the Govt of Odisha, Bakul is working on transforming the library rooms in the residential schools for tribal children in Khurdha district. Here are images of the just completed murals at the Tapoban Ashram school by a team of artists led by Smrutikanta Rout.

Amitav Ghosh is one of the most renowned Indian writers today and not just in English. He has won the Jnanpith Award (the highest award for Literature in India) and he is the only writer in English to get that. He has won the Padma Shri as well.

His novels use complex narrative strategies to probe the nature of national and personal identity, particularly of the people of South and Southeast Asia. He has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford and his writings are anthropological and at the same time explore history, mostly of the Indian Ocean region. He has said, “this is really what always interested me most: the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the connections and the cross-connections between these regions.

He has been greatly concerned by climate change. His most-recent non-fiction book “The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable” addresses why modern literature has failed to address issues of climate change, and how radical transformation due to nature has become 'unthinkable'. Ghosh's most recent book, Gun Island, published in 2019 also dealt with climate change and human migration.

Amitav Ghosh, born on 11 July 1956 is the Bakul Library’s Author of the Month July 2021.

Soon after Covid19 broke out, excerpts from the novel Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz became viral and it was hailed as a prophetic novel for talking about Wuhan-400, the germ developed at the lab outside Wuhan, and which can wipe out entire cities and countries. What many do not know is that this novel was first published in 1981 at the height of the Cold War, and the germ was called Gorky-400 in the first edition. When the 2nd edition was published in 1989 at the end of the Cold War, it was renamed as Wuhan-400 as China was the new threat to the US.

Dean Koontz was, in fact, a prolific author, writing many books in the same year. He wrote mostly suspense thrillers that ended up as bestsellers. But for his books to be bestsellers, he obviously played on the latent fears among his primarily American readers. You can check out some of his books at the Bakul Library.

Today happens to be his birthday. Happy Birthday.