I Am Galle

The Book Lender

B. Reuben

Mr. Reuben is a book lender from Pedlar Street and passionate about resurrecting his lending library. He is also a well-remembered teacher and even now some policemen respectfully refrain from smoking in his presence. The tiniest of spaces across the road from his home is filled with many books that are now lying decaying and abandoned.

Interview language: English

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Transcript and translations

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English

With the book you can forget everything, no?

Police officers, lawyers…Colombo lawyers when they come to cases here, they also come and take books. Turn and see. Everything there, no? Almost like an encyclopedia you find there. All this history.

It’s a funny story. I tell you there was a Tamil man here. He was a non-citizen here. He had been giving books and books to return… one lawyer had asked for a book. That fellow has refused to give the book for the price he asked. So this lawyer had reported to the department, Government… saying that this person is not a citizen in Ceylon and within 24 hours this fellow was taken.

So this was here. The owner, one Muslim lady she gave me. I say… I was teaching Sinhalese there, no? She said for one month you take it and do what you want. And she gave it. There were about three lorry loads of books. Most of these are rotten and thrown away. That Tamil man has been collecting these books, no? Most of them… these books have gone out and people have not returned. Schoolbooks and novels and all that. D.H. Lawrence, Agatha Christie, all these classics. And some comic books.

One day when I went to American Embassy, one friend of me took me there. He introduced me to those librarians and said, “Ah, he is running a library of his own!” So those people gave a big load of books which I couldn’t bring. About 50 odd books. Like that all these things were collected here.

Leisure hour, at a…when my mind is at unrest or something I can refer to a book and get my mind silenced, or come to a… to make it calm. For troubles, everything. With the book you can forget everything, no? You go to another world, no?

I like to read life stories, not novels. Novels are all created stories, no? Not actual things. Actual happenings you find in life stories. Other than life stories, I like one book. How to win friends and influence people. Dale Carnegie’s. That is a good book.

Those days we used to buy a book for a few cents, no? Now you have to pay a hundred rupees. Two, three hundred rupees a book. Whereas my son used to buy four, five books every month – seven hundred rupees, six hundred rupees. From Australia he has bought a book for 8,000. 12,000. One book! Nowadays you can’t afford to spend for such purposes. You have to spend for everyday needs, rather than reading books. Now you can’t. Very expensive. Beyond our reach.

About this portrait

Photographer: Kannan Arunasalam, Menika van der Poorten

Interviewer: Kannan Arunasalam

Assistant : Menika van der Poorten

Editor: Kannan Arunasalam

Recorded: October 25, 2010

First published: August 2, 2023

Last edited: August 2, 2023

Comments

Kannan Arunasalam

October 25, 2010 at 05:42 pm

I found Mr Reuben through one of his former students, Sabri, who runs a guest house in the Galle Fort. Sabri told me that Mr Reuben, a teacher, had taught many of the doctors, bankers and lawyers from the Fort. They still remembered him and even now, police officers he once taught refrain from smoking cigarettes in front of him out of respect. Across from his home on Pedlar Street is the tiniest of spaces, and inside, books lay decaying and abandoned. Mr Reuben told me about his lending library, which he inherited in 1958, and the kinds of people who came through its doors. I tried to picture what it might have been like in its heyday. Mr Reuben told me how many of the political meetings of his former leftist party were conducted in this very room. For his leftist activities, considered improper by the then government, he was banished from Galle to a remote village in Moneragala in 1978, under what he called a "political punishment". The library stopped functioning and many of the books sadly perished. Still passionate about his library, Mr Reuben has started to find ways to resurrect his passion for sharing books. But first he has to convince the courts that the space which he inherited under rather curious circumstances in the 1970s was in fact and law, now his.
Sharni Jayawardena

October 26, 2010 at 08:39 pm

I wonder what happened to the Non-Citizen: "the fellow who was 'taken' within 24 hours." That was the saddest funny story I ever heard.
Nancy Fernando

November 6, 2010 at 03:02 pm

Very, very interesting video. I like the man, he is a true teacher. Once a teacher always a teacher. I do hope with all my heart his desire to resurrect his passion happens.
Nazmi Mahamood

November 21, 2010 at 03:25 pm

See how Sri Lanka has changed from Ceylon? Spending time with people like these or letting them share their experiences is something to treasure.
R. Jayasinghe

February 19, 2014 at 05:26 am

Mr. Reuben's 'Read & Return' library where there were 'comics' of all sorts -- Schoolgirl's library, Air-Ace library etc. -- was the key note to my fluency in English. Thank you Mr. Reuben. We look forward for the re-opening of your legendary library which will motivate more children to learn English as it did me.