(Above): Litter lies strewn and accumulating in the National Library corridors. (Below): Vehicles commandeered to ferry poll personnel and paramilitary forces parked in the courtyard. Pictures by Pradip Sanyal

?Amader ekhaney machine expert aachhey. Jader machine niye oshubidha hochhey, tara amader sathey jogajog korun...?

The voice blaring out of loudspeakers set up atop the National Library?s main building, Annexe Building and Bhasha Bhawan resounds across the verdant sprawl in Alipore.

Those inside a row of small pandals shuffle in their chairs and take a closer look at the electronic voting machines before moving out to their respective destinations.

Bus and taxi drivers sit huddled on the lawns, while Calcutta Armed Police personnel ? mostly greenhorns in the force ? walk around, looking for tea.

That was National Library on Wednesday afternoon. The century-old seat of learning was taken over by the Election Commission for distribution of electronic voting machines for two city constituencies ? Alipore and Kabitirtha.

Personnel assigned for booth duty brushed shoulders with police and polling officers, while library staff struggled with their work.

Rows of buses, minibuses and taxis stood bumper to bumper, eating up almost all available space in front.

The little that they had spared was used for parking police vehicles.

The lawns were almost entirely covered with pandals, that housed rows of chairs, tables and huge pedestal fans.

The corner that was still open provided a perfect resting place for the men in uniform.

Luchis, ghughni and laddoos were in abundance, as were plastic cups and filth. Perhaps the only thing missing was silence ? something that draws around 1,500 readers daily to the library.

Only a few turned up on Wednesday, and they too made it a point to leave by five in the evening.

?Not just the blaring microphones. It was a shock to walk into the library with vendors selling tea and snacks from makeshift stalls and hordes of people milling around,? rued Sushmita Mukherjee, who is researching on the women?s education in Bengal. ?The library today was not the one we visit daily and have grown up with.?

Inside the reading room, on the second floor of the Annexe Building, the count of readers was far below normal. Even the number of personnel manning the entrance was low. Reason: most could not bear the stench from the toilets.

?With so many people around, there was no refreshment for the readers in the canteen. Ovens have been put up at places where lighting a fire is prohibited, like the room housing the airconditioner,? said Saibal Chakrabarty, secretary of the National Library Staff Association.

?The corridors have been left in a mess by the poll staff. With pandals coming up across 9,000 sq ft and around 1,500 chairs all over, the campus has turned into a picnic spot. Surely, there is no dearth of open spaces in the city that the National Library had to be taken over by the poll brigade,? he added.