In a forgotten corner of Old Delhi is a public library with thousands of rare books, including Bahadur Shah Zafar's poetry collection and Ghalib's Diwan with his seal and signature. Gargi Gupta takes a look
Looking for the Hazrat Shah Waliullah Public Library in Old Delhi is a bit like a treasure hunt. You ask for Pahari Imli, the area you're told it's located in, and are told it's one of the warren of lanes in Chooriwalan, behind the Jama Masjid. You walk on the narrow lane lined with butcher, utensil and food shops, till you turn into a corner and there it is – a single room tucked away under the stairs of a run-down old haveli. It doesn't look too grand – open shelves rising to the ceiling filled with books so old that their binding has frayed, a bamboo mat lining the floor and low tables at which you sit and read.
But don't go by the unprepossessing ambience – this is a library with real treasures. "The oldest book in our collection is about 700 years old, written in Iraq. We have a copy of Diwane Zafar, a collection of poetry by the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar which was printed in 1855 at the Royal Press inside the Red Fort. It has verses by him in Urdu, Arabic, Persian and also Punjabi," says Sikander Beg Changezi, general secretary of the Delhi Youth Welfare Association (DYWA) that founded the library in 1994.
There's also a first edition of Tareekh-e-Farishta, a medieval history of India, and Ghalib's Diwan with his seal and signature.
Another unique pointer: a large collection of spectacles of different powers for readers with weak eyesight.
The 15,000 or so books and manuscripts on history, philosophy, literature, Unani medicine, accounts and law in Hindi, Urdu, English, Arabic and Persian languages that form the Hazrat Shah Waliullah collection, have been sourced as gifts and donations mainly from private collectors in Delhi. Changezi, himself, a descendant of a family that has lived in the area for centuries and traces its ancestry to Mughal leader Changez Khan, has a vast family collection of rare books. Old bookshops and bazaars were also scoured to add to the library.
"The library was set up for people in this area, who don't have much education or places to read at. We get many people who come to read newspapers and magazines. The rare books attract scholars from university students in Delhi and even India and abroad. We also get school students from madrassas," says Changezi.
The Hazrat Shah Waliullah Public Library, run by volunteers of the DWYA has 40 members who raise about Rs5 lakh a year to maintain it. Preservation is rudimentary – neem leaves to keep out insects and drying the books in sunlight to prevent moisture, says Changezi. "We've lost around 8,000 books in the last few years. Last year, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts took up a project to preserve 2,000 books and will start work on some more soon," says Changezi.
Hazrat Shah Walliulah Public Library
Pahari Imli (near Chooriwalan)
Telephone: 011-23265120,
011-23289214
Timings: 10-1pm & 9.30-11pm
Membership: Free, but you can't take books out
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