Hyderabad, Feb. 29 -- The Idara-e-Adabiyat-e-Urdu has always been the favourite haunt of students and research scholars. Not just from Hyderabad,academics from across India would land here to pore over rare books. Foreign nationals also dropped in here from time to time to quench their literary thirst.But not anymore.In the last couple of years their number has come down sharply and in recent months few have turned up. No, thereis nothing wrong with Idara. It still has the same old books. Only they are now available online.

Thanks to Rekhta, the Urdu literary web portal, rare books and manuscripts of the Idara are getting digitized and one canaccess them from the comfort of one's home. A whopping22,000 books are now available online.

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