73-year-old Malleswaram library persists despite odds

On Sampige Road, a one-room lending library has stood the test of time since 1952. The Gupta Circulating Library, home to over 1,000 books, continues to operate despite declining readership.

Starting with just 100 books, its collection grew to 2 lakh by the 1980s, featuring works by Kannada authors like Sai Suthe, Usha Navarathnaram, Rayasam Bheemasena Rao (BeeChi), Anasuya Shankar (Triveni), and
N Narasimhaiah (popular for detective novels), along with Tamil writer Balachandran and Telugu author Yandamuri Veerendranath. English bestsellers by James Hadley Chase, Frederick Forsyth, Enid Blyton, and Sidney Sheldon were also popular. Some of these remain in circulation, alongside comic books, storybooks, and magazines.

Two years after opening, the library used to charge 50 paise each for membership and book rentals. Today, there is a one-time refundable deposit of Rs 500. And it offers two monthly membership plans — Rs 300 allows borrowing one book at a time while Rs 500 allows two books at a time.

Earlier, their readers ranged from 10 to 60 years old. Today, children make up 30% of their patrons. Notably, the family of V V Giri, Karnataka governor (between 1965 and 1967) and India’s fourth president, were regular visitors here. They would borrow Telugu books, Metrolife has learnt.

How it started

Brothers G R J Gupta and G R P Gupta were just 10 and 12 years old when they started the library. They had moved to Bengaluru from Chennai after their father, a goldsmith, lost all his money in his business. “We had to find a way to earn a living and started Gupta Stores, a provision-cum-newspaper shop,” recalls G R J Gupta, now 82.

They stocked newspapers and magazines in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. “Some customers started asking if they could borrow the books and return them after reading. This sparked the idea of starting a circulating library. Initially, we took the book’s cost as a deposit,” he says. G R J Gupta took charge of the library while his older brother focused on their newspaper distribution business, which they were running on the side.

Since the temporary closure during the pandemic, the library has struggled to regain footfall. It has around 500 members, but few actively borrow books. Still, G R J Gupta has no plans to shut it down. “I will continue running it as long as I can,” he says.

Gupta Circulating Library, Sampige Road, opposite SBI Malleswaram.
Call 080-23566459/99004 77943