I love Library

I love public library and my relationship started with it 8 years back when I first came to this country. The first view of Boston where I landed was full of construction machines and dirt (project Big Dig was going on at that time and all that rubble and dirt marred my vision of land of free and the home of the brave). Visiting the giant sized stores and massive malls did not really help make my life even remotely as exciting as it was back in India. It was a Huge change. Change from one culture to another (watching the white picket fences of this dream country or looking at the  glitz of Times Square in English movies and listening to Madonna and back street boys is one thing and living in it is another - Oh yes it was a dream come true except that I was a bit unsettled after waking up), change from being a working girl to being a homemaker , change from being someone who used to have two credit cards in her name to someone who had no credit history , could not have one because social security number is not given on H4 visa, change from  someone savvy  to someone who needed to learn a lot of ropes. Well, this piece about change deserves some serious writing , today I want to use it in context of my love with library only.

When Anurag saw me going nearly crazy with boredom, he suggested visiting library. I got my card and we started our friendship. Anurag would drop me off after lunch and I would spend next four or so hours over there connecting to the world. I wrote long emails to friends telling them about my new experiences, took printouts of the letters to send home ,read newspapers, magazines & books, borrowed DVD's. I also observed the new culture around me - parents, children, teenagers, old people. Sometimes I walked to the park behind it and watched kids and other people. I appreciated what library had to offer and to me it also meant learning about this country and  its way of life 

When we moved to Milwaukee ,I spent hours studying at the library for my PHR Certification. This library was lovely , a 3 story gorgeous building complete with a coffee shop and a gift store. I enjoyed  their vast collection as much as I savored every sip of coffee in their coffee shop in the cold afternoons.

Then I became a Mom and we moved to Lancaster, OH. A small town with a big library. I appreciated the activities of library even more as I started taking Avi for story time and borrowing board books for him. In a mid western small town where it was not easy to find many activities to entertain Avi and the park was mostly packed with snow, the library came to my rescue. We made friends and scheduled play-dates , had lunch and good times. 

Now we've moved to California and have access to a lot of libraries within driving distance but I love my 5 minutes drive to the closest one (just get me started on the gas prices :). Today we kicked off summer program at our local library with the performance by Melissa Green. She sang some beautiful songs from Eric Carle's books and kids had a great time. Neev shook some booty too watching Avi who loved doing the freeze dance. Every Tuesday afternoon is going to be full of different activities thru' summer and we have marked our calendar.