A few decisions by the Trust members

MN Memorial Library is all set to complete glorious four years. In these four years, we have not only evolved as an organization, but also learnt to notice and realize some critical problems of our society and of the lower Assam region. Hence, it is imperative for us to take a few initiatives beyond the typical library works. While book-reading will still be the most important goal of the organization, we are also looking forward to take a few steps concerning the culture, literature, social and economic conditions of the people in this region.

The purpose of this blog-post is not to introduce any new thought, but to share the decisions of the board of trustees taken in the general body meeting held a few months back. If you are following our twitter account, some of the updates were shared via the social media. It is to be noted that some of the decisions have already been implemented successfully.

The list:
1) Publish a journal paper on the Home Library concept - how it can inculcate the habit of book reading and provide resources in rural places.
2) Apply for grant to Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation as per the advice from Assam Library Association.
3) The third anniversary celebration will be combined with the fourth year celebration due to money constraint.
4) Do a financial audit of the cash register of MNM Trust by a registered Chartered Accountant individual/company.
5) Publish Annual Report of the trust ; starting with year: 2011-12.
6) Open a section in the library focussed on Goalporiyan culture and literature and work with interested individuals/organizations for the expansion of the rich culture of this region of Assam.
 

Second Anniversary Celebration of MN Memorial Library (Press note and Photo album)

Dear all,
As we are planning the celebration of the third anniversary of MN Memorial Library, we realize that our official library blog has not been updated for quite long. Though we have already updated the Press Note and the Photo Album of the Second Anniversary Celebration of MN Memorial Library into the web, we have not been able to justice to the linkage with the main library blog. Sincere apology is sought for the same.

Please click out the below links to view the Press note and Photo Album of the second anniversary celebration of Maheswar Nath Memorial Library:

PRESS NOTE

PHOTO ALBUM

The second anniversary celebration was unique from different angles. For the first time, we introduced the concept of "Social Inclusion" by inviting people from professions such as rickshaw-pulling, barber, cobbler, mason to deliver lectures on their lives and work. Convincing the people to sit on the dias was itself a big challenge

 The idea was a big success and applauded by the local media in a nice way. At MN Memorial Library, we are committed to bring in more such innovative projects in the days to come.

Hope to see you soon with more updates..... 

Minutes of Meeting of the 1st Anniversary celebration of MN Memorial Library

Minutes of Meeting of the 1^st Anniversary celebration of MN Memorial Library, Agia, Goalpara

Theme: The stories behind a few successes (কেইটিমান সফলতাৰ আঁৰৰ কাহিনী)

Venue: School Auditorium, JN Memorial HS School, Agia

Date: 23^rd May, 2010

Organized by: MNM Trust (www.mnmtrust.org)

 

 

1. Welcome address by Hiran Prova Devi, Managing Trustee

a. The journey of MN Memorial Library in the last year

b. Current status of MN Memorial Library

c. Other Activities of MNM Trust

d. Welcoming the audiences and the guest speakers

2. The thought behind today’s theme--- explained by Manjit Nath. It was followed by invitation of the speaker into the dais by giving a small intro

a. The need of positive message in the society.

b. Success does not come in a day; it’s a journey through many struggles and frustrations.

c. The six speakers have suffered a lot before people start calling them ‘successful’.

 

3. Guest Speech 1 :Practising Literature in a place like Goalpara and going to All India level recognition—a thoughtful journey described by Mr Atanu Bhattacharya, Famous story-writer

a. Literature   and writers of undivided Goalpara are very backward 

b. Goalpara has the oldest Post-Office of North East India and second oldest municipality in Assam

c. Started his career by writing poems and short stories.

d. Wanted to be a short story writer; But felt his initial stories are not that standard in comparison to established writers

e. Temporarily stopped writing stories and concentrated on poems, got established as a poet among people.

f. But basic urge to write short story again got stronger …. Started writing stories in 1999

g. Spoke about the origin of short story

h. He used to draw inspiration from  famous story writers like Mopasa, Anton Chekhov, Silabhadra,  Saed Abdul Malik etc.

i. Now a days many people  in every corner of Assam writes story without  any respect to that art

j. People must study a lot first and then attempt writing.

 

4. Guest Speech 2: Journey from a small village in Chaygaon to Nottingham University, UK and then back to Guwahati- Mr Karuna Kalita, Lecturer, IIT Guwahati with his story

 

a. Applause for the initiative taken by MNM Trust 

b. How he first met Buljit and Manjit and what he learns from these two.

c. There  are so many scopes for a researcher in a developing nation , but less scope in developed nation

d. His root originated in a small village in Chaygaon of kamrup, four sibling, father being a village farmer.

e. A family was full of teachers inspired him for teaching profession

f. He set a goal for himself and nurtures it and that gives him inspiration; We need inspiration to reach to the goal

g. A few lines of Nottingham life, and contrast with India life

h. About “Gaon Chalo” program- he wants students of universities should go to villages and stay there for some days (about a week or so) and personally see what the problems our villagers are facing actually and what they need. These students then take back these experiences to their own professional fields and try some innovative solutions; students should be motivated to work for these problems and need of village people.

i. Three questions were asked from public:

Q1: Other than patriotism , what drives him to come back to India?

A: The place where we are born, we got a duty  and responsibilities  for it; moreover  he is a very homely guy and love to be with my family . The happiness of living in native place matters to much to him.

Q2: His daily schedule as a farmer’s son during school days?

A: That is a big strength and not much different or extra-ordinary from others.

Q3: Does his aims behind going to UK gets fulfilled?

A: Our priorities should not only be money , there are other sides also, and we should be able to distinguish  them.

 

5. Guest Speech3: Launch of a youth magazine with own pocket money, an unwanted break in between, then the struggle to revive it and finally successful- Mr Suresh Ranjan Gaduka, Editor-JEEVAN with his journey:

 

a. Success is not a story of struggle , but the ability to keep the struggle going is also a success. 

b. Emphasis the MN Memorial Library is itself a big success story for others.

c. First as a student of Cotton College, edited “Cottonian” ; since then he has been thinking of a youth magazine.

d. Spoke about the birth story of Jeevan, how invested his own money, about his friend in Delhi who recently committed suicide and how the Delhi to homeward journey that gave birth to Jeevan.

e. All negative aspect(of our society , environment, politics , education everything ) attracts news and publicity . Positive things does not find place in the newspaper.

f. Getting success in and outside Assam from some backward areas is also a positive thing-like working in Microsoft from Agia.

g. Talked about revolution … starting a home library in a place like Agia is also sort of a revolution. Revolution does not only mean coming out to street and give slogan.

h. We have a very short life. To do some good work we should not wait for five years; we should start it today.

i. Spoke about “Jeevan Initiative” and its motto -উত্তৰণ আৰু উদযাপন |

 

6. Guest Speech4 : From the time when one need to struggle to convince Axomiyas that there will be a car any time available for you if you just dial 108 , and today how it images itself as Sanjibani- Mr Mofid Rahman,

a. Started his lecture by clapping for the people behind MN Memorial Home Library. 

b. 108 services not yet fully ‘successful’, still a long way to go…

c. Middle class background gives challenges (প্রত্যাহ্বান ) and প্রত্যাহ্বান gives inspiration

d. Previously worked in Hyderabad in a KPO company and feels very strongly about the differences between Andhra Pradesh and Assam

e. Once met Narayana Murthy of Infosys. He told everyone knows that Assam is backward. But by only saying this every time we are bringing no fortune to Assam. If a change does not happen, Assam will remain the same backward. And that change will have to be pioneered by the youth. Avery inspiring and thoughtful which Mofid thinks changed his life and decision for coming back to Assam

f. Spoke about the first proposal for 108 service in Assam, how did he got involved , first training at Hyderabad, strange impression by other states people etc

g. Slowly work started, Electronic database of Assam is very little- worked very rigorously to make it done first time. Technical work also started one by one

h. Got so many challenges from Government offices, at first they were not even ready to give appointment to 108 guys. Also, the traditional welcome of any government office.

i. But things got changed gradually, same people above slowly started coming to them with proposals.

j. Had to work day and night, sometimes continuously for two days without sleeping.

k. প্রত্যাহ্বান will always come in life and we should have perseverance and never say die attitude.

l. Solutions for problems may be hard to find, might not be possible in a single time, but on 10^th attempt you will crack that.

m. Used the word প্রত্যাহ্বান minimum 40 times.

 

7. Guest Speech5 : The struggle, failure and success stories behind Assam Govt's recent decision to setup an engineering college in the district of Dhemaji- Mr Buljit Buragohain, PhD scholar, IIT Guwahati with his experience

a. Made a support base through internet, member of various Assam and NE centric group. 

b. Importance of technical education

c. Keeps the paper cut of all positive news and events, circulates them among people, even bought a scanner for the same purpose.

d. Met Tarun Gogoi in Guwahati and talked with him regarding the requirement of Engg college at Dhemaji

e. Had a strong connection with local media at Dhemaji who helped Buljit enormously to build a consensus for an Engg college demand.

f. How two times he got bad news from Assam Govt for the decision.

g. Closely worked with MLA from Dhemaji

h. Finally, a long waited decision by Govt of Assam.

i. Spoke about XOMIDHAN.ORG, and how students can be benefited by this.

j. Spoke a bit about XOBDO.ORG.

 

8. Guest Speech5 : Dr Siddhinath Sharma, the man behind the struggle to get Goalpara Engineering College sharing his journey and struggle

a. Originally from Darang district, came to Goalpara for job and now a proper Goalporiya. 

b. The profession of teaching is choice made by himself and very proud of that

c. Two failure stories before beginning the Engg college story----- tried to bring good educational institutes to Goalpara twice before in 92-93 and 97-98.Both times he failed to achieve the feat due to political and other issues

d. Lesson learnt from the first two failures—Don’t go through political roads.

e. Third attempt to bring Engg College, though avoided hard core political root, ensured the support from bureaucracy

f. Met local MLA and told about the plan and requested for no political overshadow

g. Time passed on and works from various quarters advanced; By Jan 2008, Goalpara was ready for hosting an Engineering College

h. Government procedures also advanced. Communications to Guwahati increased and Goalpara is just 2.5 hours of journey from Guwahati in a roads like outside India

i. Many shameful experiences- had to convince so many people, even some people from Goalpara itself wanted to pull this proposal back

j. Not an individual effort, mentioned the name of a few other people, including Dulal Ghosh, current MLA from Goalpara-East.

 

9. Manjit concluded by thanking all guest speakers and then handing over the stage to Mr Joychandra Nath, principal, Agia JNMHS School to conduct the panel discussion session.

10. Joychandra Nath mainly targeted students in his short speech, and as declared this session to be limited to only a few selected people due to want of time.

11. Mr Dilip Sharma, famous Artist and journalist shared his views on this initiative and need to positivity in society.

12. Mahesh Chandra Nath Retired Chief Engineer, Goalpara district talked about his experience attending last year’s inauguration ceremony and today’s one.

13. Bikramjit Nath, Settlor, MNM Trust, conducted the prize distribution ceremony for library readers. He mentioned MNM Library gives away three kind of prizes:

1. Highest book reader in every 4-month duration
2. Fastest century makers in reading books
3. The reader with highest number of referrals

14. Prizes were given away to 5 library readers.

15. Vote of thanks by Manjit Nath

16. Conclusion by Hiran Prova Devi.

Apologize for the long silence

First, I'd like to apologize for the long silence of almost a year. Some strong reasons made me do that, which later came to be completely stupid. Eventually I am thinking myself the stupid, and want to make the blog LIVE as soon as possible.

MNM Library is doing good, though our other exapansion plans are on hold. We are also trying to modify the 'Home Library Concept' a bit. Will write more on this in the days to come.

Let me begin with the minutes of meeting of our first anniversary celebration, held on 23rd May, 2010 in my immediate next blog.

Keep reading,

Regards,
Manjit Nath
MN Memorial Library
One wish, one dream and a realization

A Logical Halt of this blog

Hi all,
I have not written for quite a few days. First let me quickly summarize what went since I posted my last blog entry:

1. Presentation at NEIIM-2010 : The home library presentation during the Rural Development Session at NE India International Meet-2010 was a big success. The plenary session was attended by some of the prominent scientists, economists, politicians, journalists and social activists of my state. Everybody liked the slides; many asked me questions after the session, some willing to donate books and some wants to start a library. All went well.

2. Addition of new steel rack: The Library bought a new steel rack, designed specifically for book storing purpose. We did quite reshuffle of books -children books and adult books are on different racks, a few old magazines are eliminated etc.

3. Addition of 150+ books: We bought a few assamese classics from Guwahati Book Fair; A few people donated a number of books. So recently there was an addition of 100+ books to the library. In the donor list I must mention Sridhar Adapa (Dev Manager, Microsoft), Shwetal(Business Communication, Microsoft) and Mina Baideu(Social Activist, Agia).

4. SWARANG Library-on a halt: There seems to be some political issues with the orphanage where SWARANG library is supposed to be established. I myself visit Kokrajhar district and gave a presentation to the principal, but due to BTC election and different reasons the process is getting delayed. To add to that Dipak had to fly to Delhi- so all these reasons make SWARANG library is on halt for time being. I am feeling sad.

5. Trust Registration at Guwahati: Again in this legal case, there seems to be some knowledge gap between India Trust Act,1882 understanding and Nayandeep Nath, our advocate for the cause. The district level registration is already done though. However, I am taking charge of this issue, and will solve this in my next home visit.

6. CSIM Certification Course: To learn more about non-profit organization, I have joined a certification course at CSIM, Hyderabad. I have projected my home library concept there and it has been appreciated by different people. I am supposed to do a project here on the same concept. This will add tremendous value to the library concept.

7. "Share your journey with the society": I presented the Home Library Concept at the above mentioned initiative at Microsoft Campus, organized by 'Microsoft Hyderabad Social Service Group'. I and Somak unveiled the trust website first time to public.

8. Trust website is complete: All credit goes to Somak Bhattacharya- our site http://mnmtrust.org/ is ready and live. We have implemented AJAX for quick load of pages.

9. Cancellation of 2nd 4-monthly meet: We had planned but later forced to cancel second 4-monthly meet of the library owing to the growing tension of the Rabha Hasong movement at my place. Many people were killed in violence; we did postpone twice, ultimately decided to call it off.

10. First anniversary celebration: I am going home on 13th May to celebrate the first year of the library. Planning is on. Please give me suggestions, if you have any.



Logical Halt: Now, coming to the main point, as mentioned in the title line. First let me be clear that I am not halting the Home Library Expansion, but only this blog. There are two reasons:

A. After the site is up and we are twitting regularly with all the library and trust updates, maintaining this blog is adding redundancy to the activities. So, I am trying to bring efficiency here.

B. On personal front, I am on another goal of my life and have started a new blog to write down my experiences. So, I afraid I will not be able to give time to this one.

So, here we go - There will not be any new post in this blog, at least for a couple of months. But this is just a halt, we are planning to have a separate blog section in the trust website; Then this blog will be back again! And that time in a complete different form and outlook.

Keep waiting...till then, anyway, we are 0n http://mnmtrust.org/

Some real interesting updates

I am going home on 30th December,09 and I must mention some very nice things I am working on currently. All my friends at Microsoft and elsewhere are helping me immensely to accomplish these tasks. Here we go:

1. The home library framework : This will be a step-by-step framework which will adopted by anybody who wants to start a library at his/her native place. This will contains all the pre-requisites, timelines alongwith specific guidelines to follow to start the library and sustain it.

2. The presentation: I have got the opportunity to speak about the home library concept at NEIIM 2010 (http://www.neiim2010.com ), an international meet organized by FASS (http://friendsofassam.org ) as a speaker for the session on Rural Development on 12nd January,2010

3. The video shoot : My mother is coordinating for shooting some videos for the above presentation on 13th Dec, 09.

4. The Trust website: www.mnmtrust.org is on the way..

5. The News-Letter : The first newsletter for the library is on the way..

6. The advisor pool Concept : This is a big initiative to expand our reach. Also, an opportunity for any individual to devote his time and hope with community. Details are coming..

7. Session with other NGO/institute : There is a proposed environmental awareness campaign and free computer education program proposed in my home visit on 31st Dec, 09. I will publish detail later

8. Swaranag : Our second home library.Way to go.....

We are available at many places :
1. Join our community in ORKUT:
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community?cmm=96084928
2. Follow us in Twitter:
http://twitter.com/MNMemorialTrust


Siging off in a hurry,

Manjit Nath (ZING)

SWRANG....On the way

When I first started thinking about the home library, it was just a library in memory of my father. My thought process took a turn after attending the 'India Literacy Project' workshop at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. I started looking at the home library initiative as a concept which can be adopted anywhere in our country with a real need of reading. I sat with some of my well wishers in a brain-storming session and we decided on a mission and vision to work upon. One of our vision targets expansion of this concept beyond my place, Agia.

I am super excited to inform you about our second instance of home library. I have to introduce Dipak Basumatary here, a visionary budding social entrepreneur, currently an employee with IOT Design and Engineering (a joint venture of IOCL and OilTanking Gmbh) in Delhi. Deepak, who is also a year junior to me in engineering college, expressed his wish of opening a home library last August, 09. I was like, WoW!! This is an attempt by Dipak and his four friends to give back something to their community at Narabari, in Kokrajhar district, Assam.

SWRANG-- this is what we named the new library. Swrang in the Bodo language means 'the Morning Sunrise'. This will be registered under MN Memorial Trust with the same mission of  home library concept - “To create an interest for reading, provide access to resources and help people realize their true potential”.

I will be writing more about SWRANG and its visionaries in detail. Deepak is also starting a separate blog expressing his friends’ and his dreams and ambitions.

Current Status:

Deepak came to Hyderabad on 20th Nov,09 and we both decided on all the pre-requisites. Also, we met the design company http://www.notun.net , and finished the discussion related to branding. We will be meeting at Assam in the last week of December and we plan to launch the library by the first week of January,10.

I want to paste here the ''To-Do List" I sent to Deepak after our meeting. This will depict the current status of the second venture vividly:

"Hi Deepak,Here is the 'to do' list for you with deadline. Please try to stick to this. Also keep adding to this, if you feel need, but just don't delete anything.

• 1. Complete designing the library logo and send to Notun.net for final design          -26th Nov

• 2. Build one tagline for easy understanding if your library name does not contain the word 'Library'      -26th Nov

• 3. Start writing a dedicated blog only for the library; all of your founder friends can contribute      - 28th Nov

• 4. Decide the inauguration date       -1st Dec

• 5. Start thinking of the inauguration plan, guests to be invited, etc  -10 Dec

• 6. Define your initial scope- orphan home+how many schools, also calculate how many children are there in the whole area nearby which you are targeting-main idea is to find out how many people your library will affect    -28th Nov

• 7. Designing of a 1-2 pages leaflet for distributing about the cause, vision, background of the library    -15 Dec

• 8. Prepare a write-up about your initiative which you will be sharing with anyone whom you will approach. I’ll help you by sending the template     -3rd Dec

• 9. Find a PC in working condition    -22nd Dec

• 10. Gain knowledge about the local media there, VIPs and people’s general outlook towards reading    -22nd Dec

• 11. Preparation of Rubber Stamp    -22nd Dec

• 12. Start a communication thread with all the people who know about this project, want to help etc. This is very necessary to keep all of them updated   -26th Nov

• 13. Work on the resources who will help you and in what way when you will be at home and will be finalizing all the issues before library inauguration    -14th Dec

• 14. Complete the vision statement_it should be realistic and achievable   -1st Dec

• 15. Follow up with the NOTUN guys till the whole part is done, I will start that today -23rd Nov

• 16. Write your library name in Bodo script, and also anything else if you want to cover in branding in Bodo language -26th Nov

  17. Complete all the legal formalities for MN Memorial Trust, including opening of the bank Account    -2nd Jan, 10

Only these are coming to my mind as of now. I think its enough for you to start working .... All the best, don't get randomized, Main Hu Naa! "

The Purpose of this blog is just to inform you all about SWRANG. I will be publishing more updates. Also, I am exploring a few other mediums for communicating. Stay tuned !

Library Article on Microsoft One India Portal

Just want to share you the good news that this home library initiative has been featured in the weekly e-mail communication of Microsoft India. "Microsoft One India" is an internal portal to communicate out to all the six groups of Microsoft that are in India located in Bangaluru, Hyderabad and Gurgaon. Their weekly e-mail communication has a section "We, The people", where they used to write about the extra-ordinary work carried out by Microsoft India employee(s). The edition published on September 2, 2009 featured the story - "A dream drives Manjit to set up a home library in a village in Assam "


I must thank Rebecca, Shashank,Shwetal and Nidarsana Ba from Microsoft Business Communication group for considering the initiative, interviewing me, writing up the whole story, reviewing with me and finally publishing out in the portal. Thank you very much !


This story has reached more than 5000 MS employees working in India, and till now the most commented article in the whole portal.This has also been shared with NGOs like ILP and HRF (on their requests)as the article boldly calls out their support in shaping the library dream.


Wish you a nice reading !






We, The People
A dream drives Manjit to set up a home library in a village in Assam



To dream is one thing and to realize it is another. It is only after relentless efforts that one can realize a dream. And when the dream is for the sole benefit of others, only effort doesn’t suffice; one needs to put in tremendous energy and innovation to make the dream a reality. Manjit Nath, an Operations Engineer with MSIT – India, tells you how dreams can be achieved.

It was Manjit’s dream to set up a home library for the people of his village in Assam. That was his way of giving back to the village what the village gave him during his formative years. The Maheswar Nath Memorial Library in the Agia village of Goalpara district is also Manjit’s tribute to his late father. The Library has 1850 books today and around 150 regular members. The village has no other library. For Manjit, it is “One wish, one dream, and a realization.”





The Dream
Manjit’s eyes light up when he speaks about the effort he put into the setting up of the library. He is blessed with a family of extremely well-read people. Even today, when he thinks of his father, Maheswar Nath, who was the Principal of the Balbala Higher Secondary School, he sees him immersed in books. Reading was his father’s passion - a passion that he tried to share with Manjit and everybody else in the village. As a child, Manjit read many books; but the one book that captured young Manjit’s imagination was Homen Borgohain’s Saudar Puteke Nao Meli Jai. The book is about two friends setting up a library in Assam during the British rule. “I picked up the idea from that book and soon, it became my dream,” says Manjit.
However, professional life took over and soon Manjit’s dream started slipping down the priority list. And one day, came the news that refueled the dream – the heartbreaking news of his father’s death. “I could not think of a more appropriate token of gratitude and love for my father than to encourage my people to read. It was my father’s wish – he always wanted the villagers to be well read. So, I decided to make my father’s reading room a library.”






The Journey
Other than reading, Manjit was also interested in reforming the education system in India. It was this interest that drove him to join the Indian Literacy Project (ILP). It is during this association that he learned more about library management. He started managing the ILP library in Hyderabad. Manjit was also part of the joint workshop organized by ISB and ILP. Manjit then held several brainstorming sessions on the library project with his friends at Microsoft. He had discussions with members of voluntary organizations that promote similar library initiatives such as Room2Read, Hippocampus Reading Foundation (HRF) etc. He also reached out to the Bhabendra Nath Saikia Foundation in Assam. The idea was not just of a library but that of a concept that can be adopted all over India.



Through his research, Manjit discovered that it takes more than just a stack of books to build a library. “Library management is a science actually,” says Manjit. There is a methodology around its promotion and infrastructure, categorization of the books, branding and so on. “I was getting bogged down by the enormity of the task but Krishna Priya GV, the librarian at the Hyderabad campus, came to my rescue. She taught me how to use different components of the library management software. I prepared the whole execution plan and my roommate, Alvaro, coded the software using Microsoft technologies. It is a feature-rich application that is easy to use. Now everybody, including my mother, is able to operate it with ease,” beams Manjit.

Manjit’s biggest challenge was something else though. “I work out of the Hyderabad campus. It was practically impossible to visit Assam often to set up the library,” he explained. So he started managing the home library activities remotely. He didn’t spend his vacations unwinding, but cataloguing the books and coordinating the necessary paperwork and formalities with the Government authorities.



“It was really challenging to fight the bureaucracy and set up a Public Trust to run a library. People tried to put a spanner in the works instead of helping us,” recalls Manjit. His older brother Bikramjit, an Indian Navy personnel, pitched in too. “Bikramda did a lot of running around with me.” And the brothers emerged triumphant.



Manjit inaugurated the home-library on June 1, 2009 - the first death anniversary of his father Late Maheswar Nath. The villagers and media appreciated the initiative. The initiative was written about in five leading Assamese dailies and two new channels ran a special coverage on the project. A big boost came in, in the form of a letter and a donation of about 100 books from the noted Assamese writer Homen Borgohain. Within a week of launch, the Maheswar Nath Memorial Library had over 70 registrations. To keep his readers interested, Manjit has introduced student concessions, prizes to voracious readers, debates, and essay-writing competitions.

Way Forward
The Trust is committed to the socio-economic development of the society with the home library as its first initiative. “The love of books and reading is a culture – I want to enable more people to read, provide them the necessary resources so that they can gain knowledge and realize their true potential. If our Library inspires each member to read at least five books a year – it will be an achievement,” says Manjit.He is now planning awareness and fund-raising campaigns, expansion of the library storehouse, inclusion of more self-help books, and inspire the like-minded to adopt this concept. Manjit has three concrete plans for 2009:

• Open a branch of the home library project in Kokrajhar district


• Target literate house-wives with lots of books /magazines of their taste


• Team up with three NGOs to work on the computer literacy and environmental awareness campaign

To know more about the Home Library initiative you can visit Manjit’s blog. To partake in his noble initiative please write in to Manjit. You can also donate books and/or funds to the ‘Maheswar Nath Memorial Trust’.

NB: I can't mention the web link here as 'Microsoft One India' is an internal portal and hosted on MS Corpnet,hence people from outside can't access the internal links

A few inspiring words

The other day I was discussing with my brother how great you feel when someone really encourages your efforts, gives suggestions and offers help to take it to the next step. I am really thankful to all who shares their thoughts and showers wishes to me and the home library mission. Some of my friends are working on an article on this concept and of the opinion to publish a few comments recieved from different people. I have picked up a few from the comments that I received personally (After taking their permission) and a few from public forum like Orkut, Facebook, Picasa album etc. Idea is to publish a sort of guest book that I have at home at the library, a virtual guest book, if I am permitted to say so.


1. "Always something different with you man. Keep up the good work. Update your blog regularly. At least I can read and be happy..."

Venkata Krishna N
University of Arizona, Tucson, USA

2. "I am proud of you my dear....Last vacation I did something like this in my village school.... it was counselling session... you have encouraged me more to work on social cause...."

Dichan Lepcha
Atos Origin, UK

3. "awesome work i must say ... i wish u all the luck man !!

Jugantar Chetia,
Vanderbilt University, USA

4. "abbe yaar dil khus ho gaya ye sab dekh kee...All I can say "Now Manjit will be a satisfied guy ". I really respect what you did. It's something which everyone will say "Nice one dude" and inside your heart you will feel "Its The Best". I am hoping to join the same category soon"

Aditya Dogra,
Cisco, Bangalore

5. "Amazing effort buddy! I'm so proud of you. I never knew that you were on such a mission and I'm glad that you have accomplished what you had set out to do. The enthusiasm in the snaps of all people involved is so infectious. Keep up the good work and do keep us posted if we can help take forward this initiative in any way"

Anup Nair,
SAP , Bangalore

6. "Thanks so much for sharing this. It is very inspiring!! "

Niresh Kumar,
Former Head, Hyderabad Chapter of CRY-Child Rights & You

7. "Abe mast....the whole story was like a small documentary..."

Debaroon Sarma,
IBM, Bangalore

8." Hi Recdgpians, Below is the invitation from Manjit , who has started a "Home Library" in Assam now. Manjit is 2007 batch passout of CSE department of our college and has worked in Microsoft for two years. Now he has setup a home library in his hometown in Assam with a vision of opening these Home Libraries in whole Assam to make India a more litrate country. With a motive of giving back to the society, he has started pursing this Dream and I am sure as with his strategy and execution he will reach to the stars and make it happen. Best of Manjit We are with you"

Aditya Dogra's invitation to REC Durgapur Alumni worldwide

9. "Good Luck Manjit. This is a very novel concept. My heart-felt appreciations for the same.Do let me know if I can help you in any way. I just read through your blog now....and saw through your fotos too.....dont mind if I am repeating my lines.....u make us proud.....keep the good work going.....dont let ur motivation dip at any point of time.....i ll definitely contribute to home-library through funds and support in due course of time wen i start getting paid.....lemme know if thrs anything I can do....and I ll be happy to contribute. "

Arun L Narayanan
University of Florida, USA

10. "I am in final year now IT, of NIT,dgp, you probably don't know me. Just wanted to say that this is a great work you are doing and I hope to participate in it in the future..:)"

Nivedita,
NIT Durgapur

11. "It was a pleasant surprise seeing this mail first thing this morning and even more when I saw your name. A huge congratulations! Going through the album has been an absolutely wonderful experience"

Abhik banerjee
NTU, Singapore

12. "Is your organization registered as a not-for-profit institution so that donations can be tax-exempt?I have spread the word in a couple of fora - also posted in my facebook page.
Let's keep our fingers crossed that more and more people hear about this and do something to support your initiative. I hope your blog has a mechanism for people to contact you"

Ashish Kole,
EE'83 Pass out of NIT DGP,
Former Director, Cisco Systems

13."This reminds me of our stay in Assam way back in 1984 . Everything going Lahe Lahe!!
In my opinion, this is a superb effort from our junior at college to ensure that what he has taken from the society"

Dilip Kartha,
1983 Pass out of NIT DGP

14. "We are proud of you my dear Recollian...keep it up...all the best in your coming days.by any chance when will you be in this city of joy ? Pls get in touch when you are here so that we can take you to the Alumni Committee to share a few words of your experience. We have an absolutely great alumni named NITDAA whose head qtr is at Dgp but operated from Kolkata. That might be of some help to you"

Ashok kr Roy
1972-77 EE, NIT durgapur

15. "First of all heartiest congrats for inauguration of ur Home Library, formaking your dream come true...for "The END of the BEGINNING". I havealways heard about successful personalities...how they started...abtthere struggles...and abt their success. While going through your mailmy inner self visioned you as a successful man and your dream comingtrue with rainbow colors. I wish you all the success and heartiestcongratulations once again"

Maninder Saini
CSE 2008 Pass out, NIT durgapur

16. "Indeed an excellent initiative.. Let this flourish at faster pace"

Avijit Roy
1979-83 ( ME ) NIT D,
Tata Technologies

17. "Simply amazing zing!!!!!have to say, one of the very few of us who has gone out there and lived his dream....hats off to u buddy...."

Shalil Guha
Covensys, Bangalore

18. "Great job done my friend. We Recollians are indeed proud of you. Just keep it up. We are all with you.With all my best wishes"

Shyamal Chatterjee
1974 - Met.E, NIT Durgapur

19. "Congratulation Manzit!! Photo bilak sai khub bhal lagise...really Gr8 ...keep it up"

Mantu Kalita,
Co-Founder & MD, Notun


20. "Dude... hats off to u man... i can say that u are one of the few amongst us who has gathered the guts to do what he feels he should do! Best of luck on your endeavor!"


Somnath Chatterjee
Tata Motors, Pune

21. "can't say anything dats not already been said...nd dats something"

Kanad Sinha
Purdue University, USA


22. "tammam be manjit da..what to say more..i might ask ur help one day..."


Dipak Boro
Indian Oil, New Delhi


23. "Great work Manjit. May God bless you to carry this mission to ultimate success. This is not the result of one day effort, I know you were devoted for this since long. Most of us think a lot in several aspects, but to convert our thoughts to reality is done by few of us. I liked the caption a lot "One wish, one dream and a realization"...All the Best"


Neeraj Tripathi
Microsoft, Hyderabad


24. "fect...fantastic stuff!!! this is simply gr8 dude!!"


Tathagata Mukherji
IIFA, Delhi


25. "I wish all the best for your noble endeavor"


Nitu Chiring
Oracle, Hyderabad


26. "Awesome. Really inspiring. I am touched by your commitment and zeal"


Manmohan Jain
Vice President, Computer Associates

27."This is a really heart-warming endeavour, Manjit.As a book lover, I too believe that books can bring about a positive difference in these children’s lives... wishing the library all the best
Next time I go home, will try and get some books too, if you’ll be able to carry them to the library..."

Ashwin Sudhir
Microsoft, Hyderabad

28. "I must give you credit for pursuing and succeeding. Its not easy to dream and then actually materialize J Congrats "

Ranjeev Lahkar
HR, Microsoft Corp

29. "Manjit,This is wonderful..I am planning to post this to support a child Assam yahoo group , hope you are ok with that"

Ankur Bora
Microsoft, Redmond

30. This is the most unusual ‘something’ I have ever attended in my whole life

A audience, on the day of inauguration

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Signing off,
Manjit Nath (Zing)

Quick summary of important events during my library inauguration visit

Today, let me try to give an overview of the important events/activities that happened before and just after the library inauguration. This will depict the journey we took to achieve the first milestone of home library mission.

1.The meeting of all institution’s heads @my residence, 25th May, 2007-evening
We tried to give heads up to all the people of my locality about the library through this meeting. This was very important because in such a small place like ours, when somebody tries something new, people became suspicious. They start to think –“is this a new way to earn money”. To mitigate this we targeted the prominent people of the locality.
We invited the heads (Principal/head masters) of 7 schools in the locality, presidents and secretaries of 5 NGO/societies operating in our place, heads of a few government institutes like Police Out-post, Block/circle office, Jana Sewa, rural library, etc., heads of a few financial institutes like (two) local banks, bazaar committee, (two) micro finance orgs, etc., and managing committee members of 4 private schools running in our locality. Despite rain, people showed up in good numbers and we started the meeting with around 30+ attendees.
First I explained to them the whole concept, how we were trying to affect ‘one wish, one dream a realization’ to a reality. This was followed by comments/suggestions session from all the people present there. People opened up so many directions/points which we never thought of. My bro captured all the points as MOM (minutes of meeting) and read those out to all at the end of the meeting with thanksgiving. I will publish the MOM in some of my later blogs.
Result was awesome—Everybody gave a ‘thumbs up’ to the idea.

2. Meeting some greatest personalities of Assam, 27th May, 2009
Dada and I set out to Guwahati (which is 140 KM from our home) to invite 2-3 people for our opening ceremony on 1st June, 09. Though we were told nobody will be ready in just 4 days of notice, we wanted to make the attempt for our own satisfaction.
Home Borgohain—I already mentioned his name in my blog, as my whole concept is inspired by his novel ‘Saudor puteke nao meli Jai’. He is the number one novelist of Assam (according to me) and compared to Karan Thapar for his TV interview shows. Meeting him personally was like Wow!! I explained to him this was the real implementation of what he had written years back. He greatly admired our efforts but informed us of his unavailability on 1st June due to ailing health. But this brought all contentment to our visit when he promised us to donate some 150+ books from his personal library and sent out a letter wishing good luck.
We also met Mr Ajit bhuyan, the famous writer and editor-in-chief of the number one assamese daily ‘ASOMIYA PRATIDIN’, Mr Simanta Kalita, head of CEE-North East, Mrs Anuradha Sharma Pujari, the new generation and most popular writer of Assam to name on forefront. I must say this was like one of the most memorable days for me and Dada---meeting all of them (without any prior appointment), explaining to them the home library concept and receiving their whole-hearted appreciations.

3. Awareness campaign at the local schools, 30th May, 2007
This was part of the publicity campaign. We rightly thought in such a place like Agia, where people just can’t think beyond earning a livelihood, reading books is treated as a luxury by some adults. So, main target should be the local students initially.
My elder bro, me and bro-in-law visited 8 schools and addressed the students. In some schools, the students were asked to gather at a common place and we explained to them the whole concept. In others, it was a classroom to classroom visit, repeating the same contents. All permission and timing issues were taken care on 25th May meeting at my residence.
I had the experience of addressing more than 2000 students at a time. So, it was not a problem. But of course, you will get distracted when a group of girls start whispering in the middle of your lecture ‘This guy has lost all his hair, nobody will marry him’

4. “Maheswar Nath Memorial Trust”
Registration of the library was the priority 1 item before going home, as I already had mentioned in my last blogs. We considered several options and decided to go with the trust option rather than society or NGO. Main reason behind this was easiness in legal formalities, this being a family initiative and the whole aim of non-profit.
Our first meeting with the best advocate in the district court was super frustrating. He discouraged us completely, show casing hundreds of legal formalities and asked us to donate all the books to his trust which in turn runs a private school in the district.
Then we got in touch with Mr Nayan Deep Nath, batch mate of my bro, just 2 years in the profession. Thanks to his young enthusiasm, we registered our trust at the office of district register on 4th June, 09 and also opened a SBI bank account for the trust.
Just imagine, in four days we had it done in such a scenario when the advocate had to go through his class notes for opening trust, and the bank manager had to revisit his rule book and call up higher authorities to understand the guidelines for opening trust account.
I will be publishing a separate blog explaining the objectives of the trust, trustee details and the programs undertaken by the trust.

5. SMRITI KARANDI
This is the name of the souvenir, published in the memory of Deuta. This was a great work accomplished in a particular style by Maa. The souvenir was contributed by people who had known Deuta either directly or indirectly. Starting from his childhood different people expressed their experiences with Deuta. His work, lifestyle, style of thinking, vision, responsibility and all of his dreams were beautifully captured in the souvenir. The souvenir was inaugurated by Sri Birendra Nath, very close friend of Deuta who had given shelter to Deuta in his struggling days and will always be a well wisher to our family.

6. My experience with internet
I must mention as this being the most frustrating experience during my stay at home. My roommate Alvaro and I completed the initial version of a small software to track the daily activity of the library. As my PC was 5 years old, it was not having dependency other than on .NET framework 3.5 SP1. I downloaded the freely available setup file at Hyderabad and brought it home. To my bad luck, that particular sector of my hard disk got corrupted. I was left with no other option but to download again.
I visited all the cyber cafes of my district, several govt/pvt offices and numerous relatives/friends home having broadband connection. Finally I was able to download a 50+ MB file which again needs internet connection to download rest of the files. To add to this--this file shows me the dependency on another framework-- windows installer 3.1 ..Huh!!!!!

Impossible in my district!!!!!
My bro and I drove 100 KM away to a different district, started the same download via phone in 3 of my relatives’ houses located at that district, waited 3 hours, then made backup copies on laptop, external hard disk, pen drive and CD Drive and then returned home. It was 11-30 at night; you won’t believe it, we covered 100KM in 45 minutes.
My PC did not complain after that.

7. Ceremony Day, 1st June, 2009
I have planned to publish a separate blog on the activities of D day—1st June, 2009. This was Deuta’s first death anniversary. The day started with Adhya Shraddha, which started at 6-00 AM and finished by 9-00 AM. Many of my relatives missed the occasion thinking we will be late even though we have specified exact timings. The most common mind set of being late does not work with this family----a lesson learnt by many people, and I must say, a very necessary lesson.
We started with the proceedings of the meeting at 11-30 sharp. For now, I am just listing down the programs chronologically:
a. Addressing the crowd and choosing a president (By Big Bro)
b. Felicitating the president and meeting starts
c. Describing the purpose of the meeting (By me)
d. 1 min silent prayer in memory of my father followed by offering shraddhanjali to father’s portrait
e. Reading of the letter wishing good luck sent by Dr. Nagen Saikia, Former president, Asom Sahitya Sobha.
f. A lecture on Smriti Karandi, the souvenir published in memory of father (By Maa).
g. Inauguration of souvenir by Biren Jetha
h. Felicitating Mr Bruhid Rabha, the 10th position holder in Assam in 12th exam from Agia centre (An initiative from MN Memorial Trust)
i. Short speeches from attendees on the work and philosophy of late father, an effort to relive the memories.
j. A lecture on the home library concept, where we were, where we are now and where we want to be in the future (By me).
k. Lecture by our library inaugurator and chief guest
l. President’s speech and thanks-giving
m. Inauguration of the library.
n. Press Conference for media
o. Lunch service

8. The publicity through local media
We took extra care about the media participation for the event. The local reporters of almost all the leading dailies of Assam participated in the event. The two TV channels of Assam—NEWS LIVE and NE TV were also there. After the meeting we had a small press conference where we discussed all their queries mainly on the trust and the library. I also had an exclusive interview with the TV channels. The news published in various news papers and the news show on TV gave us nice exposure of the post library inauguration.

9. The response from students
One thing that worried us much was the amount of response after opening the library. One of the often-repeated view that come out after 25th may meeting at our home was that we should not get discouraged even if we manage to get only 1 reader in first one week.
But reality had a different story to tell—we got 77 readers in just the first 4 days. Important point is that they are not simply coming as an ignorant user, but have thoughts and enquiries in their mind.


Conclusion:
Currently the library is functioning perfectly with my mother as main librarian and other 3 deputy librarians who volunteer on different days of the week. We are thinking of buying some new books particularly to serve the needs of the student community.

Recently I have developed a feeling of regret in my heart—This library should have happened when I was a student. I would have definitely been the first guy to finish all the books in the library and………