A collection of old books in Doranda. Picture by Ashok Karan

Ranchi, Sept. 20: A treasure trove of old, rare and out-of-print books, a visit to Doranda Sarvajanik Library is a delightful experience.

But despite its enviable collection, the library fails to attract too many readers and has a total membership of only around 200.

The library, which celebrated its 67th anniversary on September 17, boasts of having the Hindi versions of Hieun Tsang?s travels ? Thakur Prasad Sharma?s Hieun Tsang ki Bharat Bhraman ? (Indian Press, Prayag, 1929) and Rajendra Prasad?s autobiography (Bharati Sadan, Muzzafarpur, 1947). It also has the complete works of several Hindi, Bengali and English authors.

The authors whose works find place in the library include Premchand, Bhartendu, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bimal Mitra, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajendra Prasad.

Besides, readers will also find Ramchandra Shukla?s Hindi Sahitya Ki Itihas (1940), Kavya Nirnaya by Bhikharidas, the selected works of Lenin and Village Panchayats in India (1956) at the library.

Those with a liking for yesteryears? magazines will find copies of Vishwavani and Navneet ? Hindi publications of the 1940s and 1950s ? to pick up and take a trip down memory lane.

The section on spiritual books includes Ramayana, Mahabharata and other important works. Copies of the Quran and Bible are also available.

Of the 14,000-plus titles the library has on its shelves, more than 3,000 are rare ones.

But the future is not all that bright. Funds do not flow in regularly and the show is run with the money obtained as rent for the four shops opened in the building.

The other sources of income are the monthly subscription of Rs 3 and deposit of Rs 25 as caution money per member.

?The amounts are too meagre to run a library. But the old members insist that it should not be closed even if we have to pay from our own pockets. We have not received any grant or help from the government so far,? says library secretary Bajrang Prasad Gupta, adding that a couple of ministers had made donations in the days of undivided Bihar.

The library, he recalls, was started with a ?healthy? amount of Rs 515 in 1938, contributed by the Doranda Natya Sanskritik Samiti, a local theatre group. The group members raised the money by staging plays. The library is run by a trust at present.

?We have kept the library open only because of the old members. The situation is quite grim and we find it hard to pay the librarian and attendant,? Gupta says while showing the ill-maintained and dusty shelves.

Senior BJP leader C.P. Singh, who was the chief guest at the library?s September 17 function, was a surprised man when he saw the place. ?When the library authorities invited me, I thought that it must be a small library with a few hundred books on its shelves. But it was a real surprise for me when I saw how grand this place was,? he had said.

Singh then assured the library authorities that the government will do its best to keep the library alive.

?The collection is impressive ? in terms of both quality and number of books. We should try to make it richer. More people should benefit from the library. I will speak to the education department and see how we can help the library,? he had promised.