In this day and age, where book reading has almost died among youngsters, Rohit and Manasi Joshi Roy are proud of their 12-yearold daughter, who is not just into books, but has also become the official steward of the first Little Free Library in Mumbai.
Rohit tells us, “This is a non-profit organisation based in the US which has started a worldwide movement to boost reading habits. My daughter Kiara, who loves to read, chanced upon an article about this and came up to us saying, `I want to start one too’ and that’s how it all happened.This is the first one in Mumbai.“
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They now have kids from neighbouring schools and colleges coming over for books. Says Rohit, “Some street kids too have come and the smile on their faces has to be seen to be believed. They have seen nothing like this before where you can just take a book you like with no strings attached. We have also had so many people including Kiara’s teachers come forward to donate their books to her library. We, as parents, are extremely proud of Kiara’s endeavour to share her books with unknown recipients. This is a trait I had developed from Mahesh Bhatt when I borrowed a book from him to read. When I said I’ll return it in a few days, he said, `Don’t. Give it to someone else who can read it. It’s wasted lying in my bookshelf.’“ We won’t be surprised to spot the Roy family members, including uncle Ronit Roy, immersed in reading books from little Kiara’s library.