The pandemic paved way for the online platforms to gain more prominence allowing different groups of people to reach out to wider audiences. Library of Diversity formerly known as Human Library Hyderabad went online to cater to their readers and not lose touch with them during the Lockdown of 2020. Harshad Fad, founder of Library of Diversity shared about the events that led him to create an online platform to read Human Books.
Harshad said, “We were looking forward to on-ground events that were to happen last summer as part of Human Library Hyderabad which was when the lockdown was announced and everything had to be cancelled.” The organisation waited for the lockdown to end and go back to on-ground events. Since that was not the case instead, they decided to go online and use Zoom to bring Human Library Hyderabad now known as Library of Diversity to the people of Hyderabad.
Credits: Dhanush
He added, “This is when we realised that loneliness was felt in the society because of the lockdown especially by the people who are away from their family and were trying to adjust since they were alone and working from home the whole time.”
He mentioned that it was mentally challenging times and that is when they thought about having a conversation not about work but about connections and human interactions where the people try to understand each other. Harshad said, “This is one reason why we went ahead with online events even though we knew this would not come in close to the experience you have when you interact personally with the Human Books.”
Harshad said, “We got some good response since we had about 15-20 people on an average call and most of the sessions that we conducted were over the weekend. Every weekend we would have one session and call in people from different backgrounds.” The people participated enthusiastically and a total of four events were conducted in a month. He added, “Since people’s screen time was an issue during weekdays due to work from home or online classes, we scheduled our sessions during the weekends to reduce the time spent on screen.”
Screenshot of an online book reading Credits: Library of Diversity
The online sessions were able to attract first-time readers and people who never heard about something like Human Library Hyderabad back then. “We could see that the crowd were getting a lot out of these conversations like having a break from their everyday life which was taking a downside otherwise. I think it helped to keep the mental health aspect in check for a lot of people who participated. That’s how we evolved over the next few months during the lockdown,” said Harshad.
One of the most important and positive transitions to online during the pandemic was that the Library of Diversity formerly known as Human Library Hyderabad was not bound by any wall. People from all over the country and the world participated and engaged in conversation.
However, the concept of the Library of Diversity is to engage with Human Books and most of the Human Books were used to interpersonal telling of their stories as part of Human Library Hyderabad. Harshad added, “It was difficult for the human books to go online and wasn’t a very smooth transition because they are used to talking to people face to face where you meet the audience. With online what happens is that a lot of people are not very comfortable with showing themselves on the camera. A lot of time people would not switch on their cameras so the human books were always talking to blank screens.”
He mentioned, “But with time like everyone did, we also accustomed ourselves to it and the Human Books also became comfortable over time.”
One might wonder what led the Human Library of Hyderabad to be known as the Library of Diversity. Harshad explained, “While we were doing Human Library we always had the idea to reach out to people outside Hyderabad to closer villages and communities. But we would never be able to do something of that sort if we were concentrating on monthly events and colleges in the city.”
He added, “We pitched this idea to Human Library organisation but they had their rulings which did not allow us to move beyond a certain territory and experiment with the idea. However, there was a lot of scope and potential in this idea and we thought we could do it the best so we backed out of it knowing our culture better than any other foreign organisation.”
Harshad decided to trust on the knowledge and experience of having worked with this particular organisation for the past four years and went ahead with the Library of diversity which is an indigenous organisation.
It focuses not just on urban areas but also rural areas and aims to make an impact by trying to reduce the social constructs.
Credits: Library of Diversity
“We are now completely known as Library of Diversity. Human Library exists but we are not a part of the organisation. We will operate as Library of Diversity, name of the books will be human books and we want to focus on impact which is one of the reasons we are building online platforms so that we can reach out to people at any time not just during our events," said Harshad.
He mentioned, “Change is not about one single event. One will hardly see a significant amount of change happening or a significant amount of outcome coming out of a single event. It has to be a continuous process and it needs a lot more than a single event every month. So that’s why we are trying to create these online platforms and applications where you can read the books anytime, make your parents and friends read them anytime, and show a different point of view. That’s how we will create an impact rather than one single event at a corporate or a college.”
However, Harshad shared no on-ground events will be conducted as of now. “We don’t want to take the risk. Currently, I am not sure of the safety of conducting an offline event,” he added.
There are 17 Human Books put up online and a lot more will be added. “You can borrow and read them online on our website libraryofdiversity.com. I think that is a very small impact but if you have these various channels to put your message through then, of course, the impact also grows,” added Harshad.
Library of Diversity is like a start-up and it is not a non-profit, unlike Human Library Hyderabad which was a non-profit organisation and financed entirely from the savings of the members. Harshad shared, “There are means of revenue earned to keep the Library of Diversity going. We are not generating it through the readers who come to read human books. The means of revenue are the corporates, apparels, merchandising, and other revenue sources which keep us going and makes us sustainable.”
Listen to Harshad's tale about Library of Diversity here:
Credits: Ananya Mariam Rajesh
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