Daijiworld Media Network - Mysuru

Mysuru, Sep 30: What began as a young bus conductor’s love for books has today become one of Karnataka’s largest free libraries. Anke Gowda of Haralahalli village near Mysuru, who once spent most of his earnings on buying books, even sold his house to expand his collection.

Now known as Pustaka Mane (Book House), his library holds nearly two million volumes, including over half a million rare foreign editions, 5,000 dictionaries, and manuscripts dating back to 1832. Books in more than 20 languages—from Kannada and Sanskrit to English and other foreign tongues—are freely available to anyone, with no fees or membership required.

Gowda’s wife Vijayalakshmi and son Sagar live with him inside the library, helping to clean, sort, and catalogue thousands of books. Despite financial constraints and a huge backlog of uncatalogued material, the family continues their mission, hoping to digitise the collection for future generations.

Born into a humble farming family in Mandya, Gowda worked three decades at a sugar factory but invested almost all his income in books. His lifelong dream, he says, has been simple, “To make knowledge accessible to everyone.”