The Bogie Library.

Bringing to the children of Yellow Train and Coimbatore a Library in a Bogie

A little girl read a book when she was 12.

She grew up wanting to build a school like that.

Especially a library like that.

A small train was made for the children in the Kindergarten in 2010.

From 2015 there were conversations on how to buy a Bogie.

A Railroad car from the Indian Government.

In 2016 the conversations got serious. Letters were written to the Government.

In October of 2017 a team of 5 teachers went to Erode to see an old railroad coach.

It was called 92410. It had retired after 25 years of carrying passengers.

In November of 2017 – we participated in an auction. We bid and bought the bogie.

In November of 2017, the oldest children of the school in Class 9 went to Erode.

To bring the bogie – to make the plans for it.

In December of 2017 the community ran a Marathon to raise books for this Bogie.

In a day 16,500 books were raised. By  Yellow Train children and their families.

On 21st of December 2017, the whole school camped in the football grounds.

On 22nd of December, 2017, 6 AM,  The Bogie arrived at the School Grounds.

It rested there like a seed that lay in waiting. For 2 years.

In 2019, resources were available to transform it.

It was lifted and placed on the corridors of the New High School Building.

It was painted and rebuilt. Transformed into a magical space.

It became the Library for the school and the whole community in January 2020.

FURTHER READ: An Article by The Hindu when the Library was opened to the community. Giving Berth to Books

A Personal Note: The Bogie Dream – How the whole community rallied for a Dream.

An article written by Santhya Vikram on 3rd January, 2018 after the arrival of the Bogie that would someday become a Library.

7 PM, Thursday, 21st December, 2017.

I have some special relationship with the rain. From a very long time.  And in the Yellow Train story the rain has always played a part. When we first opened the Grade school building we had a few drops of rain just as we began. And then the much talked about overarching rainbows that appeared over our new amphitheater. This particular evening, we were all watching the play Alice in Wonderland followed by the Slave Narratives and the Terezin Camp by Children of Grade 7 and 8. It was a very moving work and to see it portrayed by the children was even more stirring. And then suddenly one heard a gust of wind and realized out of nowhere on a December evening it was raining. For me it meant something. I know that this night we are all gathering at school for something extra ordinary. For the bogie to arrive.

6 AM, Friday, 22nd, December, 2017

Awakened by a babel of voices, Totto Chan jumped up and ran through the school grounds and out the gate.  A great big railroad car was just visible in the morning haze. It was like a dream – a train coming along the road without tracks making no sound. Soon there was great commotion. There were no giant cranes in those days, so to get the car off the trailer and to its destination in the school grounds was a tremendous operation. Heave-ho, Heave- ho, chanted the workmen as they toiled, and the sun itself seemed to be rising in time to their rhythmic cries.

This car which had carried so many people had its wheels removed.

Its traveling life was over.

From now on it would carry the sound of children’s laughter.

As the boys and girls stood there in the morning sunshine in their pajamas, they were so happy, they could not contain their joy. And none of them ever forgot how happy they were.

As I finished reading these lines

It was not lost on me that I was standing on a real Bogie

In our school grounds

At the doorway

clutching the book in my hand

In a moment that was humbling and vulnerable  

Looking at the sparkling and some teary eyes of the teachers

The children in their pajamas

The parents with a look of a wonder and amazement

And in the distance, the blue sky

the sun that was just rising and shining on the bogie and the children

Not knowing what to do with the tears that I was fighting

Or the overwhelming feeling of gratitude

that was engulfing me.

Was this real?

Is it falling out of the pages of a book that I read many years ago,

And held on to, for all these years?

When did my dream become a shared dream

That this moment mattered to so many people?

Is this what happens to dreams that are not for you,

but for someone or something larger?

There were so many questions. So many thoughts. So much going on inside my head.

And at the same time a feeling of stillness and an inexplicable quietness inside.

The night we spent awaiting the Bogie was something I will never ever forget. The football ground was slowly swelling with families pitching their tents. There was some special feeling in the air. Of one large family. Of common bonds and togetherness. Of a big dream manifesting for all our children. Families were sharing warm stories inside the tents and the children were playing through the night outside the tents awaiting the bogie.

When many people who were traveling with the bogie over the last bend that took many hours rushed into the grounds at dawn announcing the arrival of the bogie, children and parents woke up and ran out of their tents to receive the bogie. Watching this and being a part of this has been the most humbling moment in my life.

The feeling of gratitude for the forces that makes these dreams possible and the feeling of interconnectedness and love that we all share as one big Yellow Train family is what I carried with me in to the days that followed during the Christmas vacation until there arrived a new year reminding me of the new miles to go…

Books mattered so much to people at least in this corner of the world.

All Aboard 92410

Article by Shrinithi Mahendran as featured in The Hindu

Over a thousand people gather in Cosmo Club, Race Course, wearing their marathon bibs on
December 17, Sunday. Children, parents and even grandparents huddle together talking about being a gold runner, a yellow runner and so on. There is a ticker board hung on a tree which reads 16,500. There is a lot of excitement in the air as they all begin to sing, “Open a book and you will find, people and places of every kind…” At 5.30 a.m. and 6.00 a.m. the five kilometre and two kilometre runs get flagged off.

“There is no competition. We don’t care to finish first. We are all running to celebrate our bogie
filling with books,” says a group of Grade 8 girls from the Yellow Train School.

The school started their “Fill the Bogie” campaign across the globe and received books with little notes attached, from many countries. In Coimbatore, they reached out to people through their parent community to register for a Marathon with a minimum of five books. People pooled in books from friends and family and brought as many as they could to fill this one of a kind library in a train.

“My brother, sister and I went from home to home in my neighbourhood and collected books. We managed to collect 300 books for the bogie, ” says Keshav Sriram, an 11 year old student of the school.

 The whole running track is filled with the sounds of cheers, slogans and jingles. The children have so much to say and so do the parents.

 “My son came home one day, telling there is going to be a library in a train just like it is in the book – Totto Chan: A little Girl by the Window. It is so inspiring to see how the school is recreating a scene from a book, making a dream, a fantasy come true,” says Bindhu Lakshmi, a new parent of the school.

 Tanvi Rajkumar, of Grade 5 is a bookworm. “I really didn’t think it is possible to have a train in the school campus. A library in it, is like a dream to me!” she exclaims.

 The youngest runners were 3 years old. They wore their bibs and ran for a bit, and then their parents held them in their arms and finished the run for them. "This is so exciting for us. We wanted to be a part of this wonderful idea” says Sindhya Karthik, mother of a three year old. She is happy to think that her little son will have a special library to visit as he grows up. “Will we see the train full of books when we finish running?” asks the little one.

“A train that took people from Jolarpettai to Erode to Trichy to Mayiladudhurai to Thanjavur is now retiring after 25 years of its travelling life – to carry the laughter of the children of Coimbatore,” says Mayura Muralidharan, Co-ordinator of the school.

"We would like to invite book lovers from the city to join us on December 21st night as we wait impatiently for the bogie to arrive through the village roads and cornfields in to our grade campus to become a library.
The children have planned midnight markets and entertainment, as they wait for the arrival of their train.

92410 is not just a number anymore. It is the number of the bogie that is to become Coimbatore’s special library.

Watch our Fill the Bogie campaign video here

16,500 and counting…

The school collected about 16500 books for their bogie library from Coimbatore through
registrations for the run. Many books from across genres were deposited. From classics like Enid Blyton and Charles Dickens to contemporary authors like Rick Riordon and Veronica Roth, all kinds of books for children and adults were seen during the book collection. Some runners carefully picked Indian author books for children from independent publishing houses and donated mint copies.

“I gave away 38 of my most treasured books for the library. I wanted the children and others to benefit from my collection,” says Karuna Guruprasad, a parent. She donated her two volumes of Ramayana published by Sai Publications. “I searched for three years in the market to get these books and I’ve read them a thousand times,” adds Karuna.

The day of the book deposit was something to see. The school had organised pushcarts from Pazhamudhir nilayam and volunteers were stationed everywhere. People came with suitcases and cartons and boxes filled with books and were loading the trolleys with books in place of fruits and vegetables and the cheerleading team was going crazy announcing the number with great merriment and fanfare as they reached every thousand. It was reassuring to know that books mattered to people at least in this corner of the world so much.