After a spring-break visit to New York in March 2020, Anaik’s mother was diagnosed with Covid-19. During those weeks at home, Anaik found solace in books, they helped him escape isolation even as his family struggled with illness. This discovery of books gave him the perfect dose of mental relief. Soon after, his grandmother tested positive and was hospitalized, and Anaik realized how harsh and cold isolation can be. “I would FaceTime her during her stay at the hospital and I saw she had no sunlight in her room. She couldn’t interact with anyone, it felt so lonely. Back home, we were reading books to pass time. I thought to myself that books could be a great escape for loneliness at the hospital,” Anaik recalls. What began as an experiment to help his grandmother soon transformed into a way for thousands of patients to battle isolation through books. He launched Loving Library on his 8th birthday as a way to give back to his community.
