“The allure of the “city” is stained. Worldwide cities have gone from being physical manifestation of human ingenuity to manifestations of brute inequality and unsustainability, and while all of us in cities sit and boil in the discomfort of this grim reflection, it seems more uncomfortable to get out.

Simultaneously identity of the “village” is seized. Worldwide villages are seen as “to-be developed town to, to-be developed city” but no longer as parallel ecosystems, and its very people lured by the promise of individual economic freedom, have desolated or deconstructed their own villages for more cities to be bred“

“In the vast Himalayan Mountain range lies Thapli, a remote village on the verge of being abandoned by its own people. In this slow process of desolation, the first to leave are the men, while the women work trifold holding the agrarian village together. Our interest lies in the Women of Thapli, the last fully functioning members of the village, that were systemically kept outside the “economic scheme” and hence the only one capable of challenging it.

By appropriating the traditional concept of a library / pustakaalay / gyaan ashray for the women of Thapli, this intervention aims to create a transformative space that challenges the prevailing notion of progress defined solely by urbanization. Instead, it highlights the intrinsic value of self-sustaining village ecosystems and their potential to chart a more environmentally sustainable and inclusive future.

In the midst of technological advancements, the role of a library has constantly been in question. Thapli’s library transcends the notion of a mere collection of books, embracing the purpose of being a bridge for dialogue and learning closing the gap between the villages and the outside world. Harnessing technological resources including AI to overcome the traditional barriers of illiteracy and language.

Library not as an institution that sublets knowledge, but instead as excuses that percolate into the everyday routines of women of different class, caste and age.

As the women traverse the entirety of village, interacting with different places in varying intensity, it informs the dispersion of the library in location and in scale all over the village.

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Within these interventions, what could a library be in order to shape a new claim to the imagination of the village by the women themselves.

- an archive of its local voices (audio / visual books, songs, folklores)

- a place to showcase alternate case studies (radios, short films)

- a place to strengthen democracy (government bulletin board, information center)

- a collective voice to its own diaspora (newsletter/social media updates of the village)

- a node in a larger social-network of villages (establish a strong formal communication with neighboring villages)

- a museum of its practices (collection of objects/tools that represent collective memory)

- a place of respite and repose (shade water, seating, toilets)

- a place for harnessing natural resources (passive and active ways of harnessing, sun water and air)

- a place for celebration

- a place that gives identity

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