Get off at Churchgate. Borrow a book.

For decades, I walked in and out of Churchgate Station on my way to work or a family outing. Through all those years, I almost always had a book with me. I read it on the train, often finishing a few chapters during the journey from Mumbai's northern suburbs to the city, and back again.

So you can imagine how I felt when I heard that Churchgate now had its own library. Right there, at the end of the station, at a spot I must have walked past thousands of times.
 
My wife and I decided to see it for ourselves, and came away impressed.  

Library Junction, as it is fittingly known, is a free public library open to everyone. In fact, it is the first-of-its-kind reading corner at a railway station. You can get off the train, walk up to the library at the southern end, borrow a book or return one you had borrowed earlier, and head out of the station. Or, if you like, do the same on your way back.

 
The idea behind the library is simple: give commuters easy access to books in the very place where they spend so much of their day.
 
“Commuters can borrow books from the library anytime between 8 am and 8 pm, Monday to Saturday, and return them within two weeks. While there is no membership fee or forms to fill, you have to share your phone number and email so that we can remind you to return the books,” Satish, the Station Library Manager on the day shift, told us.

Satish beside Library Junction: Bringing books 

closer to Mumbai's commuters.

 
Borrowers can, if they wish, also pick up a book with the intention of keeping it. However, they will have to replace it with one of their own. For example, if you take an Agatha Christie novel from the mystery fiction section, you have to replace it with another book from the same genre, though not necessarily by the same author.
 
Library Junction—an initiative of Project Mumbai, backed by the Mumbai Division of Western Railway and Larsen & Toubro—currently has over a thousand books in different genres spanning both fiction and nonfiction, including books in regional languages such as Hindi and Marathi. The NGO plans to create more such reading spaces in other parts of Mumbai through similar collaborations.
 
“Most of the books have come from the organisers. Many have been donated. Anyone is free to donate books to Library Junction. Books are always welcome,” Satish said.

While we were speaking to Satish, a small group of commuters gathered around the library, attracted as much by its striking red façade—which reminded me of the iconic British red telephone boxes—as by the books themselves, neatly lined up in glass cupboards. A couple of college students walked in, dropped their bags on the seats and began browsing the titles.

Before we left, I couldn't resist asking the obvious question: Do people return the books they borrow? We were told that most do—and on time too—although some need a gentle reminder over the phone.
 
Most of us usually hurry through railway stations, which are hardly the kind of places where we might spend a few minutes looking at books. More often than not, we are rushing to our offices so that we can clock in on time. Yet, if the library prompts commuters to slow down, even if only for a few minutes, and pick up a book or two, it will have done something worthwhile: getting people to read, or read again.
 
With Library Junction, books are now just a fast or slow train away.