Haldar, an English teacher with over 26 years of experience at the Metropolitan Institution’s Bowbazar branch, had long been concerned about the declining interest in reading among younger generations. Determined to make books accessible to everyone, he set out to challenge the widespread belief that libraries are spaces reserved only for the elite and highly educated.
His journey began five years ago on International Mother Language Day, when he set up Patuli’s first street library. With just 500 children’s books purchased from his own income, he repurposed a broken refrigerator and placed it on a small patch of pavement near a grocery store in Baishnabghata Patuli Township. That simple act marked the birth of what would later become the Patuli Street Library (PSL).
