Delhi Woman’s initiative on metro aims to provide everyone with the opportunity to read.

Team Udayavani, Oct 18, 2021, 11:16 AM IST

Source: News18

Shruti Sharma of Delhi has always been compelled to do something different because of her passion for literature, and as Delhi’s lifeline, the ever-reliable Delhi Metro provided as the ideal location for her to do so.

Sharma was inspired by British actress Emma Watson, who put books on subways in New York, London, and on street corners in Paris to promote book reading among the general public, according to The New Indian Express.

In 2017, Shruti dropped her first book, a copy of ‘The Namesake’ by author Jhumpa Lahiri with the help of her husband Tarun Chauhan.

Shruti was quoted saying, “As a child, I did not have a lot of books. I love reading but owning books was a luxury. In a way, I grew up chasing books. With Books on the Delhi Metro, I wanted everyone to have access to books,”

Shruti handled the first couple of months of the initiative by herself but after that when her project caught up everywhere, people started to join as volunteers. These volunteers, known as ‘book fairies’, would prepare a schedule for a book drop. Under this, a particular book’s photo will be clicked and posted on social media for the followers to pick up the hint. After someone picks it up, it will be read and then the commuter will again drop it off at a nearby metro station and inform about it, for someone else to pick it up.

 

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Despite the fact that the lockdown put Shruti’s project on hold for a while, the team decided to find another way to communicate with the readers. A new approach was established, in which questions were asked regarding a specific book, and whoever had more insights received the book, which was then sent to their location.