New Delhi: Hazrat Shah Waliullah Public Library, housed in Pahari Imli lane, near Jama Masjid in Old Delhi caters to thousands of people in the locality.
This Library is a depository of rare literature, including a 700-year-old Arabic book on logic, a copy of the Bhagavad Gita in Urdu, the Quran in Hindi, the Ramayan in Persian, and the entire works of Bahadur Shah Zafar printed in 1885.
The collection also boasts of rare works of Mughal era poets Mirza Ghalib, Mohammed Ibrahim Zauq, Momin Khan Momin as well as medieval Sufi treaties. The library is home to about 21,000 books.
Talking to ETV Bharat, Delhi Youth Welfare Association (DYWA) general secretary, Sikandar Chengezi said that the library was opened by the DYWA members in 1994.
"To begin with, the founding members of the library had brought some books from their own collections. As word spread, people started donating entire collections from their homes thus Shah Waliullah Library was born," said Chengezi.
"As the literacy rate of Old Delhi was not much in those days, so this library was opened in order to provide books to the people of the area so that they could be benefitted maximum out of it," said Chengezi.
In all, the library gets 25 to 30 visitors a day. It remains the go-to space for research material too.
"After coming here I got to know the importance of this library. I don't know Urdu language but after coming here I have got an urge to understand Urdu. one must learn as many languages one can," said a visitor.
The library makes the evenings of this crowded area, with no parks, clubs or places to hang out in, very pleasant. Friends gather here to read, play carrom and board games, or simply to share their joys or just unburden their problems to a sympathetic ear.
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