The British Library

 The British Library is a Scholars delight and a Mecca for the researcher. I consider my self to be very lucky to to be here in London  and since this is not very far  from where I am staying, and is at walking distance, I can visit this now regularly in the morning. Thanks a lot Urmi Mala ji from JNU who took me to the library. It was a pleasure meeting her and discussing issues related to our common interest.  I have now, got my readership card. The British Library is the National Library of UK and one of the largest libraries in the world with 170 million items and artefacts from every age of written civilisation in the form of print, digital, sound and art form. The section that was of interest to me, the India Office Records, is on the third floor and this is like manna from heaven and food for the   hungry. One can so easily get any record that you want. The people in this section are so helpful to the researchers and they explain the process to you with lot of patience. I was shown, Moin Martin, 1988,The general guide to India office records, London, British library. Here there were the Archives of the East India Company from 1600-1856. Board of Commissioners for India affairs, 1784-1850,India Office Records1858-1947.Besides this it has many private papers, autobiographies, family records. In fact this has, 500,000 printed books 60,000 periodicals, 250,000 photographs,and two centuries of Indian print records, all from 1850 onwards.My God, this was a researches dream library. When we were students in India working for our Ph. D working in the late 1970's, it was such a nightmare getting manuscripts, making rounds of different  libraries, trying to get research material. Now, life has become easy with digital resources and imagine working in British library. I really felt like registering for another Ph. D. There are two bookshops on the ground floor, many coffee and eating joints around the place inside and outside in the lawns. On the ground floor there was a museum too. I was very disappointed for it did not allow photographs to be taken. I do not know why, for photography is allowed every where in London in museums and other places. May be the material is very precious but what I saw today was beyond my imagination and some thing which I saw for the first time in my life. This has sections divided into literature, art, sound, religion. Under literature, I could see the real manuscripts in their own writings of Jane Austin, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Brown, Keats, Shelly. I am not sure if they have any  thing on Shakespeare for I could not see it. There were Quran from 9th cen to 14 th cen hand written and so beautifully written, the Hindu texts of Upanishad, Vedas written. I could see many miniature paintings and the albums  of Dara Sikho. There were letters of Gandhi, one signed by him, Sarojini Naidu supporting England for the First World War and other letters. I could find the copies of all my books here, including the one with my student S. Jeevanandam on Devdasis. A very thrilling day for me and I almost felt that I have stumbled on a hidden treasure.