The place will be open to public from morning till 10pm every day
Nafiu Nabil, Dhaka: A once abandoned area littered with trash has been revamped into a beautiful open space for book lovers in Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Udyan.
A group of Dhaka University students launched the initiative on Sunday at the entrance of the Udyan adjacent to the Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) to increase the habit of book reading.
The place will be open to the public from morning till 10pm every day.
Tanbir Hasan Shaikat, founder of the library, said: “This is a historical place that has been abandoned for a long time. That is why I wanted to make use of the place and provide a place for everyone to engage in conversions on free thinking.”
The open library will have books under three categories – Liberation War and Bangladesh’s history, and Bengali and English literature.
Shaikat, a former member of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (Ducsu), plans to spread this initiative across the country. “This is just the beginning. I want to set up open libraries like this in all the 64 districts of the country.”
At the library, a donation box has been kept where anyone can leave a book for donation to their cause or take a book for reading.
“I believe this will be a place for everyone to come to and have a discourse on freethinking ideas. Books are a great tool for developing thoughts,” Saikat told the reporter.
“In many countries across the world, the practice of reading books on the side of the road or in the green shade of a park has been around for a long time, but unfortunately it was not happening in our country. I hope this initiative will be beneficial for everyone,” he added.
