Dear Jeyamohan,
The talk about Abe Library is good. I was overwhelmed by the memories of the Jafna library; it was torched by the Sinhala thugs in 1983. I was just 7 years old then. I grew up hearing those stories. I wondered why they destroyed those books. It is not a harmful weapon. In fact, it is not a Tamil-only library. Then I understood a library is the symbol of intellectual power; the Tamils of Jafna always had that pride in their knowledge. The enemies of human culture wanted to ruin that symbol, and torching it is literally a symbol. The destruction of the great library of Alexandria is a symbolic act. I can feel how the Austrians feel about their collection of knowledge, and I feel proud about the Americans who were very careful not to ruin the library in war. Similarly, the Nazis were very careful about protecting the great paintings and books of Europe in war, even on the verge of their defeat. We eastern people boast about our age-old culture, but we are a kind of semi-tribe even today.
Yoga
