Dr. Kurella Vittalacharya is a principal, a retired lecturer and an award-winning writer in Telugu literature who published 22 books as a poet and finally a founder of the library.
He mastered in Telugu literature and wrote 22 books which includes ‘Vittaleshwara Satakam’ which is a compilation of 100 poems.
He won many awards in his career. He was felicitated by the Telangana government with Dasarathi Award in the year 2019. He was honored with ‘Telugu University Distinguished Award’ by Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University for his contribution to Telugu literature. Vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu. He presented him the award.
Though he is a man of many talents but his love for books and literature made him to give up everything he earned in his life at the age of 84 to build a library as a part of Ramannapet Mandal in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district which has around 2 lakh books.
The inspiration behind the library
Dr. Kurella Vittalacharya was born in 1938. His childhood dream of opening a library never got fulfilled because the country was enslaved when the Telugu poet was a child.
Due to the passing away of his father when he was born, he faced acute poverty while growing. Due to the poor circumstances, he couldn’t even afford to buy books. He used to borrow the books from his friends. Since, the borrowed books needed to be returned the next day, so he used to spend entire nights to finish reading books.
Even to continue his education, he used to go around to all the households in his area to seek donations from people.
After the retirement, he built a library dedicating it to the people of the state. He thought to build this library so that others don’t need to face the same hardships that he faced to get knowledge through books.
The journey of the library
After having several jobs, he took early voluntary retirement in 1993. after the retirement he confined himself in the village for almost 22 years. In the year 2014, he thought of fulfilling his childhood dream and started working on it. Initially, he started the library at his home with 5000 books which came from his collection. Then, he started asking people to make donations in form of books.
His initiative got support from eminent poets and writers who started donating their books to the library. The library that was started with mere 5000 books got to the book count of 2 lakhs in no time.
With the help of donations from his students, he demolished his old house and spent 50 lakhs in building the library in his village.
His work inspired so people so much that they started libraries in eight nearby villages.
The books in the library impose no charges whatsoever, even the regular readers are even awarded to motivate the habit of book reading.
Praise by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
In the last ‘Mann Ki Baat’ of the year 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a special of Dr. Kurella Vithalacharya, where he appreciated the library made by him. By setting his inspiring example in front of everyone, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointed out that it is never late to fulfil one’s desires and age does not matter to dream.
If you like this story, then read another inspiring story about how Ngurang Meena sets up a free self-help roadside library to instill the habit of reading in children and adults.
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