Shahalibanda library holds its charm even in the present era

Hyderabad: No luxurious seats or air-conditioners, neither laptops nor desktops and no power boards either to plug in mobile phones. Still, the Shahalibanda library located in Lal Darwaza continues to hold its charm in the present era.
One of the oldest facilities in the older parts of the city, the Shahalibanda library attracts hundreds of youngsters who aspire to bag government jobs – both central and state or the public sector undertakings.

Known for its peaceful ambience, the library set up in 1953 and inaugurated by the then home minister Digamber Rao Bindu, is a much-sought place. “Several people bagged government jobs after preparing here for the qualifying exams. It has the distinction of being one of the oldest places where scores of job aspirants spend months preparing for exams and subsequently succeeding in their attempt,” said A Jitendra, a local leader.

The library has a collection of around 70,000 books in six languages, Urdu, Telugu, English, Marathi, Hindi and Kannada. Apart from its book collection, there are dictionaries in Hindi, Urdu, Telugu and English languages. Books useful for students preparing for law, medicine, engineering and others exams are also part of the collection. Whenever job notifications are announced, the authorities supply books of various publications which are most sought for references by the job aspirants.

“Books of various well-known publications which the students ask us are arranged through the head office. After the posts of various government jobs were announced recently, youngsters started flocking the library in hordes,” said the librarian, B Venkatiah.
The library is open to the public between 8 am and 8 pm on all working days. Bhavya, a local resident who is preparing for CA exams said she is a regular visitor to the library for the last few years. “The ambience is peaceful here and we can concentrate on our preparations peacefully,” she said.

Jagadesh Reddy, a resident of Uppuguda, started visiting the library after the government announced jobs in various sectors recently. “I am planning to apply and appear for the police sub inspector recruitment exam. I have heard through elders that many youngsters who prepared for the exams at this library got selected for various government jobs,” he said.

According to the librarian Venkatiah, the students are also seeking an extension of the timings at the facility so that they could spend more hours in preparation here. “We will inform the head office about it and if more staff is sanctioned, we will consider extending the timing by a couple of hours,” he said.