hyderabad at 82 nirmala birla is as spirited as she was 66 years ago when she first walked into the birla family as a young bride enriched by her travels over the years and a keen interest in rare books and artefacts that she picked up along the way the octogenarian is still striving to make education both exciting and accessible to children in india her mission at hand to upgrade the gp birla library within gp birla centre gpbc in hyderabad to match the scale of the library of congress national library of the us in washington the wolds largest such facility with a stock of roughly five lakh booksthe library at present has 10000 books each of them handpicked by its founder i am not sure whether i will succeed or not but my aim is always very high a graceful nirmala birla says as she retraces her journey from being a justoutofschool teenager to managing museums temples and schools across hyderabad jaipur bhopal and kolkataher story is generously peppered with references to her husband gp birla who she credits with handholding her through it all from buying her that first book in london grooming her interest in science exposing her to art from around the world and initiating her into philanthropic activitieswhen my husband passed away 2010 i realised he had done so much i needed to carry his legacy forward so i made gpbc within the bm birla science centre complex which was set up by him nirmala birla says her eyes lighting up at every mention of the centres achievements over timesince its inception the planetarium within the complex has had 25 million visitors another hit is the art museum packed with artefacts from the world over there are over 200 porcelain dolls also handpicked by nirmala birla from germany france russia among other places it started with only three dolls initially the recent addition to the premises the space museum is the firstofitskind in india and has been attracting 1000 footfalls every day packed with 45 models sourced through isro the museum is in the process of adding to its collection with the chandrayaan 2 model too expected to come in soonthere is a lot more interest in science among people in hyderabad which is very heartwarming to see says nirmala birla confessing her love for the city which she first visited in the 1950s it was for a business trip to kagaznagar that she undertook with her husbandi love spending time here i divide it between the temple and museum i also interact with the children who come to our study hall she adds the hall opened 2018 is available to students living in hostels and looking for a quiet place to prepare for their exams my ultimate objective is to try and do my bit in helping students in india get quality education especially in the field of science why should they always need to go abroad nirmala