The computer screen has replaced the paper page. This silent revolution has hit hard the economically disadvantaged readers in the third world countries. Here students at the college and university rely on photocopies of expensive books. The prices of foreign books have gone up several times; even the cheaper second hand ones are beyond the purchasing power of many students. The standard of teaching has gone down, and the spurious tutorial centres are thriving in the private sector. The price of good education is more than mere bucks . One gets sentimental about missing the libraries of the olden days. Now it is pop-up reading.

The USIS and the British Council libraries were popular in the LDCs before Internet was available. These agencies had to change with the time; and the requirements of the LDCs have lower priority with the service providers from the Western affluent nations. This time-lag between the two worlds will always exist, regardless of the presence of the UN or the WTO. There is not much scope for internal adjustment for the economically handicapped readers; for whom the two ends never seem to meet.

The great divide is widening, with the forced application of the principle of pre-emptive strikes against weaker nations. The 'educated' care for the education of the new generation. When even the moral codes are hanging , what to do with foreign-controlled libraries? Today culture is controlled by the media, and the media is controlled by the foreigners.

My personal library, a lifetime's labour of love, has no borrowers or browsers. My lending ledger does not fill up as quickly as I wished it would. That is the irony of life -- no golden edges. Only the clouds above still display it from time to time. Time to re-read my own library.