L for Library

 Hermione Granger! One of the three central characters of the Potter series. Intelligent, studious and meticulous ! Her favourite place in Hogwarts - the library !  For an enchanted world where everything happens by magic and where even memories can be pulled out of a head and saved in bottles, there is nothing similar to the internet or google. For every information one has to depend upon the massive book collection inside the library and that's where she gets very interesting and useful facts.

Picture courtesy: Ryunosuke Kikuno on Unsplash.com

I love to read and I enjoy browsing the shelves of the local library picking what next to read! When you find out that a title that you have been wanting to read for quite some time  is available for you to borrow, it's a very special feeling indeed! I mostly read fiction and am happy borrowing the books rather than buying them .

During my college days many of us used to prefer sitting in the quiet library to study rather than in our hostel rooms where there was an imminent danger of  using the books as pillows and dozing off. On the eve of one of my exams ( that was my very first semester I think) I was at the Ref-Li( short for Reference library) and to take a break I decided to go for a 5 minute walk . On the college corridor I met a couple of friends. We talked , we gossiped , we giggled , we laughed and it stretched to more than half an hour. These friends did not have an exam the next day and they did not exactly fall under the "whiling away time" category.  Finally when guilt and self nudging won over me, I waved goodbye and traced my steps back . What I saw had my mouth wide open with shock! The library doors were closed and there hung a big lock with no human in sight. All my books , reference material and even my calculator were locked up inside.  My room keys and my cycle keys too!  All my plans for last minute preparation got popped like a nasty needle on a balloon. Lesson learnt: if you are leaving your belongings at a public place, be aware of the timings!

In Singapore there are unmanned drop off points outside all libraries where we can return the books on loan. Last Friday, I collected the books to return and carefully counted multiple times to make sure all six were there. I sent my son to drop them off and was pleased with myself to remember returning them on time.Late returns incur a fee. Yesterday,  Iwas browsing the library app to check for some book  when I realized that I still had one more book on loan. That's when it dawned on me that instead of returning a library book I had dropped off one of the books we own and which had been a birthday present for my girl! Thankfully they had kept it separately and I was able to get it back . Lesson never managed to learn : Dont be absent minded!!