Yesterday at the library

Yesterday was quite stressful at the library. I came home soul-exhausted. There were some incorrigible customers who seemed to relish putting the librarian through her paces. But on second thought, there were some thought-provoking and delightful encounters that made the day well worth living. Here are some highlights.

Two Pakistani-American girls befriended me at the children’s desk. One of them shadowed me all day and even helped with reference transactions. I think it made her feel grown-up and responsible. The best part was when we were talking about how bad my spoken Hindi/Urdu is. I explained to them that Hindi isn’t my mother tongue. Then they asked me where I come from. India, I replied. We silently digested the fact that “our countries” are having some “problems” at the moment. One of them said,

The South Asian Literary Recordings Project

The South Asian Literary Recordings Project is an exciting project in which 79 authors from the South Asian region have been recorded reading works written in their native languages — 18 different languages, in fact! I was first introduced to the website for the project by an e-friend who had been listening to a podcast of mine in which I interviewed a family member who recited Ghalib’s poetry in Urdu and who thought I’d be intrigued by this broader and more encompassing audio project.