Greetings from author Padma Venkatraman

As I look forward to the RI Center for the Book Meeting and being in the company of librarians and books in my all time favorite place in the world – a public library, I find myself thinking back to one of the most important discovery of my life, which I think I made when I was six years old and lived in India.

My youngest aunt, Sundari, who was visiting, had brought gifts for me and for my cousin Ramya, who is just four months younger than I am. I was certain my aunt hated me and loved my cousin, because cousin Ramya’s gift was a large, colorful board game and mine was just a book. Not even a brightly colored picture book, or at least a book with black and white illustrations, but instead a book filled with nothing but words.

I remember staring unhappily at the endless rows of print that stretched across the front page for many long minutes.

Then something magical happened. As I looked at them, those little words, those marks on paper, carried me into another place and time. I heard voices – clearer than any on the radio or a record player; I saw pictures – sharper and more real than any painting. And by the time I put the book away, I had met people as real to me as my friends and family were.

But that evening, I saw a beggar child who looked about my age. The child’s eyes reminded me of how privileged I was to be able to read; that in India, at least, education and books and libraries were accessible only to those with wealth.

Years later, I came to Virginia, to the College of William and Mary’s graduate school. There, I saw my first public library.

“How much do I have to pay to become a member?” I asked. To my astonishment, I was told I did not have to pay anything at all. All those shelves of books were open and accessible to me and to anyone who wanted to walk in through those doors. The amazing public library system became, in my mind, the most beautiful practical expressions of American ideals. To this day, I still believe that there are few better examples of the best of American culture.

So it is truly an honor for me to present the keynote address at the Rhode Island Center for the Book’s annual meeting. I love libraries just as my as Vidya, my protagonist in CLIMBING THE STAIRS, does. Public libraries have been my haven in times of homesickness; public librarians have been a source of support to me since I began climbing the stairs as a writer; and I hope very much that Rhode Island’s citizens (librarians and others) will bless me (inside and outside public libraries) as I keep Climbing the Stairs as a published author.

Padma Venkatraman (http://www.climbingthestairsbook.com/)

Padma