In 2022, when most people were telling me that libraries were obsolete — that nobody reads anymore, that everything is on YouTube, that attention spans are six seconds — I opened a library. A free one. With no membership fees. With doors open to anyone who wanted to walk in and read.
People thought I was being sentimental. Or impractical. Or both. I want to explain why they were wrong.
What I Was Seeing Around Me
I was watching people — particularly young people — spending hours each day on their phones, consuming content in fragments, never settling into anything long enough to understand it fully. Attention, once the most natural human gift, had become a scarce resource being fought over by apps, platforms and algorithms.
The casualty was deep thinking. The ability to sit with an idea, to follow an argument across many pages, to inhabit another person's perspective fully — these capacities were eroding. And I believe they are essential. Not just for intellectual growth, but for empathy, for citizenship, for being fully human.
"A library is not just a collection of books. It is an act of faith — in people's capacity to think, to wonder, to grow."
The Idea Behind BNB
Books N Beyond Library was built on one foundational conviction: access to knowledge should not depend on the size of your wallet. In most libraries in India, membership fees create an invisible barrier. The people who most need access to books are often the least able to pay for it. I wanted to remove that barrier entirely.
What Happened When We Opened
The response was extraordinary. Within weeks, BNB Library had become a gathering place. Students came to study. Professionals came to read during lunch breaks. Retired teachers came in the afternoons. Parents brought their children on weekends.
The diversity of the community that formed around BNB was genuinely moving. In a city where so many spaces are defined by economic status, the library was genuinely open to everyone. A college student sitting next to a retired government officer. A teenager discovering fiction for the first time next to a grandmother revisiting her favourite Malayalam novels.
The Indian Express Recognition
In May 2022, the New Indian Express ran a feature on BNB Library — "Books N Beyond: upcoming Kerala library where reading is fun and hassle-free." The coverage brought attention we hadn't expected, and with it, a wave of new visitors and donations of books from well-wishers across Kerala.
Garuda Community Library
Our mission expanded further with the Garuda Community Library, established in the tribal settlement of Pankavu. Bringing free access to books to communities that had never had a library was one of the most meaningful things I have ever done. Visit us at bnblibrary.in.
Reading as Resistance
In 2024, choosing to read a book is an act of resistance. It is a deliberate refusal to let your attention be managed by someone else's algorithm. BNB Library exists to make that act of resistance easy and welcoming for everyone in Trivandrum. Come read with us.
— Sukesh R Pillai