This Hyderabad library brought to mind my favorite quote, “Fill your life with experiences, not things. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show.”

Libraries have generally been the most avoided place for most of us! But what if we tell you there’s someone who is all game to change the ‘boring library identity.’ And you know how?

Well, Harshad Fad, a student of mass media and communication is reviving the concept of knowledge sharing through his concept called Human Libraries.  People coming to this library will read humans instead of books. They will share their life stories.

Establishing the concept of knowledge sharing, the idea behind this library is to engage people and broaden their horizon towards newer things. “I won’t say to uproot beliefs because expecting people to not have stereotypes is far-fetched. Our aim is to create a framework where people who have certain prejudices and stereotypes come to the Human Library sit with that person representing that prejudice and challenge their beliefs,” said Fad.

Isn’t the idea cool?

Though this is not the first human library, let’s get to know how this one functions. Ronnie Abergel, started the first human library in Denmark and has been a constant support for Fad.

“Human Library is not a storytelling platform but more of a Q & A platform where difficult questions are expected and answered. We want people to challenge their prejudice and come out with a wider perspective of the society we live in.”

Fad along with his friends organize these literary events and invite anybody and everybody who has an interesting story to tell and fit in the set categories given by Fad.

“This works like a usual library where readers come check out the catalog and borrow one of the living books for 30-minuteute conversation.”

Also while people choose their human book categories and go on to interact; they are also open to questions, making it an interactive session.

“It is more of a one on one conversation session for each reader but if there are a lot of people borrowing the same book we have to issue the living book to that group. Sometimes 4 to 5 readers borrow the same book.”

Being a strong believer of learning from life, from people and their stories, visiting this human library is next on my to-do list.