If you use this ATM, you get literature, not cash

All around the world, people have been using ATMs to withdraw money. However, in Hyderabad, there is a new ATM that doesn’t dispense currency cash, but literature!

The vending machine has made its debut at the Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) at the Vidyaranya High School, The Hindu reported.

Also called the Story Box, it is four feet in height and can print free information on the multiple activities of HLF. Not just that, it can also print literary content.

The idea came up in 2019

It was in 2019 that the idea of setting up such a machine sprouted. But it was not easy.

Aparna Vishwanatham, an enthusiast at DoScience, an experiential Science Centre, and a member of the editorial team that creates content for it, told the publication, “In terms of the final output and the interface, we don’t even know what’s inside the Story Machine. We only knew that it prints at the press of a button. We started from scratch; our only aim was to print stories in English, Telugu and Hindi.”

Simple to use, it gives out papers the moment one clicks it with all the details filled in.

Presently, it is being used by Ramakrishna Math, a spiritual organisation and the Agricultural University. The editorial team prepares content based on different agriculture-focused websites and other platforms.

Till now, 70,000 strips of paper have been printed. The sum and substance of having such machines are to encourage and inculcate the habit of reading across age groups.