A blaze can’t kill the spirit of this book lover

Shilpa P | NT

Mysuru: This 61 year year old ardent fan of Sandalwood thespian Dr Rajkumar, who loves and honours all religions equally, may have lost his public library to a devastating fire but it has not destroyed his spirit.

Not the one to give up so easily, he succeeded in rebuilding the ‘Syed Issaq’ public library again at 5th cross, Rajiv nagar 2nd stage in Mysuru which will be inaugurated by students of a government school on the occasion of Republic Day at 11am on Wednesday.

He has rebuilt his library at a cost of Rs 4 lakh and now has 1900 books in his new library including 300 Qurans, 400 Bhagawad Gitas, and a collection of Bibles, books of noted authors like Kuvempu, Swamy Vivekananda and others. “A professor of the University of Mysuru has collected 6500 books for me, which will be handed over to our library shortly,” Syed Isaaq told News Trail.

Soon after his library was burnt on 19 April 2021, promises flew in from government authorities to help Syed set up the library again. But he is yet to receive any funds from the government. However, he received donations of Rs 3.45 lakh including Rs 2 lakh from Congress leader BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan, Rs 50,000 from Mysuru Kodagu MP Mr Pratap Simha, Rs 25,000 from the Mysuru district minister, Rs 10,000 from JSS Math seer Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamy ji, Rs 15,000 from one Ms Lalitha Rao and a few other large hearted donors. He has invested the remaining amount from his personal earnings and has set up the library.

“Children are the future of our nation, so I want children to inaugurate this. I have also invited MLA Tanveer Sait, minister ST Somashekar, MP Pratap Simha, the JSS seer and all others who have supported me in reestablishing my library, for the inaugural event. Earlier, I used to keep the library open from 7am to 7pm, now since I have a power collection and two fans too, I plan to keep it open till 8.30 pm,’’ Syed said.

His love and respect for all religions is intense as he was born in a house next to the Ramamandira and a mosque in Ganjam, Srirangpatna. “I grew up hearing the ringing of bells of a temple and the prayers from a mosque, simultaneously” Syed says. “I love Dr Rajkumar’s movies for the social messages he gave, the way he taught us to respect elders and uphold humanity” he said.

Syed’s love for Kannada is so strong that he has sent all his school-going grandchildren to Kannada medium government schools.