Over the last several years, Quetta’s Sariab Road, once the site of frequent terror attacks and explosions, has been transforming — for all the right reasons.

For instance, the road is being constructed to transform it from a single road into a dual carriageway. A number of shopping malls have sprung up on this once notorious road over the last several years, which enjoy a good footfall, particularly from women.

Al-Naveed Shopping Mall is one such structure that has cropped up on this road in Balochistan’s provincial capital. Inside this mall, a young man, Amjad Baloch, leads me to a small shop tucked away in a corner of the first floor. Inside, the only place for light to enter is through the half-shut blinds. The walls are lined with shelves full of books, as is the tasteful counter that takes up quite a bit of space.

Amjad calls this place the Readers’ Club, which he recently set up along with eleven like-minded friends.

I ask Amjad to switch on the lights so that I can take a picture of this delightful little haven. While I say that, it hits me that there are no lights installed, with insulated red wires hanging out of the sockets in the ceilings and walls.

A bunch of young men, hailing from Quetta’s once-notorious area, have set up a service to allow people to borrow books free of charge…

Amjad walks over to the next shop to request them to turn on the lights in the corridor. His request is swiftly declined; he is told that the electricity is out and that the mall is being powered by a generator.

Amjad, however, is undeterred. His life has never been easy. Growing up with eight siblings on his father’s limited salary as a lower-tier government employee, he was always jostling for space and opportunity. Two of his brothers even gave up on education and started working odd jobs at an early age.

But he was always headed in a different direction. As an eighth grader, it led to his school library in the Kechi Beg area. “I have had an interest in reading since then,” he tells Eos while sitting on the floor of his Readers’ Club. “My passion reached a point where I read the complete works of Ali Abbas Jalalpuri and Sibte Hassan during my school days.”

Bit by bit, Amjad used his pocket money to buy books, and it reached a point where he transformed one of the rooms in the house into a library. He was still in school at that time.

“At the time, I had 150 books in my personal library,” he reminisces. After joining college, he made a few friends who were also keen on reading. Their number would grow to an even dozen by the time Amjad reached university.

Along the way, says Amjad, his grades in school and college suffered, as he was more interested in reading books for his own pleasure as opposed to course books. “I think it was because I was keen to understand the books conceptually, instead of the rote-learning formula required for the books that were part of my curriculum,” he says.

While his grades weren’t great, he seemed to be on the right path. Amjad is currently studying philosophy at a university, no doubt inspired by the many nights spent poring over the works of Jalalpuri and many others.

Through the years, though, Amjad and his friends kept up the habit of getting together to read and discuss books. One of their favourite haunts was Lore Karaiz, in the same Sariab Road area, where students had converted an abandoned healthcare facility into a makeshift library.

While Amjad and I are at the shop, we are joined by Abid Baloch, one of the co-founders of the Readers’ Club, with the remaining ten members of this merry bunch also in tow.

When I ask them about the idea for setting up the Readers’ Club, there is one recurring theme in their responses. It was, they all agree, to facilitate women, who are often unable to go to a library due to social restrictions, so that they could enjoy books even without needing to come to libraries.

‘IN THE COMPANY OF BOOKS’

There are around 2,000 books at the Readers’ Club, mostly on national and international affairs, on the history of Balochistan and Pakistan, and on Baloch and Brahui literature, as well as books on philosophy and fiction. The club uses social media, including Facebook and WhatsApp, to inform people about new arrivals, as well as to share the list of books available with it.

Once a book is requested, the boys deliver it themselves, on cycles and motorbikes, with the reader not charged a dime. Within a month, says Amjad, the number of readers they have in Quetta has climbed to over 1,000.

The club functions on the basis of trust, with the borrower expected to return the book within a month. If someone fails to return the book, they are blacklisted. “We don’t have any book thieves, although two people haven’t returned the books that they have borrowed,” adds Amjad.

What is heartening for Amjad and his friends is that nearly half the requests for books are made by female borrowers. One of them is Sidra Baloch, who is a regular reader now, thanks to this initiative.

“I came across the Readers’ Club through Facebook,” Sidra tells Eos over the phone. Like most people, Sidra says she was spending most of her time using her cell phone, with reading taking a back seat after she finished her studies. One key factor in that was a lack of access to a library, particularly as a woman residing on Sariab Road.

One of the first books Sidra borrowed and read was Bolan Ke Ansoo [The Tears of Bolan] by a local fiction writer, Agha Gul. This, she continues, amplified her interest in reading about her province and its history. “Since coming across the Readers’ Club, I have resumed reading, and I am enjoying being in the company of books once again.”

BUILDING A COMMUNITY

Amjad and his friends have been buying and delivering these books without taking any money from their readers. But it is not easy for students to finance such an initiative. They insist that they haven’t founded the club for profits, but to strengthen the culture of reading and a love for books. For them, subscriptions and membership are unnecessary complications, at least at this point.

But they have found support from the unlikeliest of sources.

The boys had to move their club — and the books — to several places before ending up at its current location. “It was because we couldn’t afford the rent. The owner of this shop has decided to support us by not charging rent,” says Amjad.

Similarly, he adds, various people, including writers, have been donating books too. Meanwhile, Amjad and his friends manage the pick and drops among themselves, depending on the borrower’s location.

One such borrower is a man with an amputated arm, who works at a garage. “When he wanted a book, as usual we wanted to deliver it to him,” recalls Amjad. “Instead, he came over to the club at Sariab Road. He said it was out of respect for the book.”

It is such inspirational stories, adds Amjad, that help the friends continue their work.

He intends to continue running the club and to fulfil his own voracious appetite for reading. In the future, he wants to become a teacher, so that he can bring the joy of reading and learning to as many students and classrooms as he can.

The writer is a staff member based in Quetta

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 30th, 2024