BHUBANESWAR: Imagine a book that will sit in front of you and give answer to all your questions. The unique concept of human library where readers can borrow a human book for about 20 minutes listen to the interesting stories and quench their curiosity on a subject, dispel their misconceptions on various subjects was held here on Sunday. As many as 250 readers from different age-groups turned up during the day-long event and read ten human books from diverse backgrounds.Stristi Chaudhury, a student who read the human book of a gay and sexual abuse survivor, said “It was a unique experience. I had many questions about the kind of response gay persons get from their family, friends and the society at large. How they feel and many more? The interaction was also emotional for me.”The other human books include bisexual and survivor of clinical depression , hearing disabled and female entrepreneur, transgender and civil servant, alcohol abuse survivor, acid attack survivor, victim of caste discrimination, Italian-born Odissi dancer , world renowned gotipua dancer and victim of human trafficking and former sex worker.“The response was overwhelming and many people said the 20 minutes time was not adequate, they wanted to interact for more time. The idea is to establish a safe conversational space, where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered in order to promote understanding of social prejudices, and increase tolerance and empathy between human beings, by making people share their realities with each other,” said Sourav Panda, one of the organisers and member of Bhubaneswar Poetry Club.“After getting such a nice response we are planning to make it an annual event in Bhubaneswar with more diverse human books,” Panda added.A human book, who is a victim of human trafficking and former sex worker requesting anonymity said, “It was indeed a nice experience during which we share some of the difficult times of our life with these unknown readers. I enjoyed the sessions and no one asked questions that will be humiliating or odd. I think I satisfied my readers.”

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