Unique library aims to make books a healthy companion to TB patients in Sewri

Members of the trust that donated books to Dr Lalit Anande, chief medical officer

In the long battle against life-threatening diseases, a little help can go a long way. This is why India's biggest tuberculosis hospital complex in Sewri has started a campaign called Beside the Bed, that provides patients with books to read by their bedsides.

Granth Tumchyadari Kusumagraj Pratishthan, a Nashik-based book trust that provides books at doorsteps, has donated 125 old books to the hospital. The collection includes titles on philosophy, history, and novels across languages. The hospital's new book reading service will be the first-of-its-kind in any civic-run hospital in Mumbai.

Bed-ridden for days, many a time TB patients slip into depression. "This reading system will ensure that they are given books along with medicines. We hope that this will also boost a reading habit," said Dr Lalit Anande, chief medical officer.

Jayshree Kulkarni, an ardent reader and someone well acquainted with the hospital, contacted the Nashik book trust to contribute. "I feel that patients who feel dejected by the disease will be able to keep themselves preoccupied with these books," she said. Patients are also allowed to keep the books. The hospital is contacting writers and publishers for more books. However, they still don't have a librarian, so they are requesting patients to distribute the books among themselves.

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