Letters of Gratitude (LOG) 1: A Library, and an Open Door

I went back to the library not knowing quite what I was looking for.

I only knew that somewhere inside me, the researcher I had been before Sanju died was still waiting. I wanted to find her again. I wanted to prepare, to read, to write abstracts for conferences I wasn’t yet sure I had the strength to attend.

I needed a place to do that work. A quiet table. A door that wouldn’t ask me to explain myself.

Professor (Retired) Helen R. Sekar of the V. V. Giri National Labour Institute (Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India), gave me exactly that.

She made the library at her institute available to me, for as long as I needed it, without ever making it feel like a favour I had to earn or justify. I would arrive, sit down, open my books, and simply be allowed to work.

Nobody hurried me. Nobody asked me discouraging questions.

Over those weeks, sitting in that space, something in me slowly came back. I read. I made notes. I built the beginnings of the conference presentations that would, eventually, put me back in front of a room again.

It may look like it was such a small thing: to offer, a room, a table, a door left open. But it meant everything to me.

Dear Professor Sekar,
Thank you for making that library available to me, during a time when I barely knew how to ask for what I needed.
Thank you for the space, and for never once making me feel like I had to explain why I needed it.
It gave me somewhere to go, and somewhere to find the academic in myself, still waiting.
With deep gratitude and respect,
Shaweta