“To preserve these manuscripts, Fahrenheit chloro benzene wrapped in a piece of cloth needs to be kept in the shelves. I have tried my best to preserve them I even got into fights because of that!” he adds. “Every time i want to open one of these, I have to first shift all the furniture. But you tell me, can I even open these almirahs?” he asks, in the same dejected vein, as he points at a cupboard choked with piled up furniture. “Our culture is what we neglect the most in our country. Aur padne layak scholars bhi hain kahan?” asks Fazaluddin, as he flattens out a crumbled certificate awarded to Osmania University Library by The National Mission for Manuscripts, to show us. “Since these manuscripts won’t create doctors, engineers or IT professionals, they lie here in the darkness of locked almirahs, neglected. But the sad part is, they lie here in total neglect, gathering dust laments, Fazaluddin Ahmed, who has been in charge of the manuscript section for the past 20 years. They cover a plethora of subjects, from Puranas, Dharma Shashtras and Philosophy to Music, Astronomy, Lexicography, Medicine, Poetry, History and Biography. Did you know the Osmania University Library houses manuscripts dating back a thousand years? Yes, the gloomy room chock-a-block with dusty wooden cupboards in the left wing of the 54-year-old library building, is actually a treasure trove filled with 6,428 rare manuscripts, dated between 11th to 18th centuries.