In a modest cottage near gate number one in the interiors of Dal, a small wooden door opens into the only library in Dal Lake. Named ‘Travelers Library’ by its passionate 43-year-old owner, Muhammad Latif Oata, the library houses an eclectic collection of over 500 books in many languages, including Germen, French, Spanish and Hebrew . The personal collection of books would not have become a library had Latif, a third standard school dropout, not loved the idea of collecting and exchanging books in return for getting to know the stories.
Latif cannot read books but he loves them. He identifies his books by their colour and publisher’s mark. The books are placed alphabetically—from A to Z—on multiple shelves spread over a wall adorned with Allama Iqbal’s life size poster. There are separate, smaller shelves for books in French, German and other foreign languages. Every book in his collection evokes memories of those who exchanged books with him. He gets up and carefully pulls out a special, original edition of Ian Fleming’s novel Goldfinger gifted by a foreign visitor. He has many original, old and rare editions of books in his collection. On the desk lie five books in French language. Few days back a French visitor had come with his books for the library.
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