Bartaman

12 crore books in a nine-foot empty stall!

Report by Sudipta Roychowdhury, Bartaman, Kolkata, Friday Feb 6, 2025:

‘Do you have the book ‘NCERT at your fingertips – Biology’? How much would it cost? ‘ – asked Kaushik. The prompt response ‘Rs 999’ got him thinking and he pulled out his wallet and calculated in his mind. Kaushik had already bought a dozen books by then from a few stalls and some little magazines, which, even if he wanted to, in a remote village like Bhimpur in Majdia, were not available. He had already spent about a third of the money he had. Kaushik had been saving his earnings for seven – eight months.. He planned that he would buy the Joint Entrance preparation books from College Street with the money his father had given and pay for the other purchases at the Book Fair on his own. But he did not go to College Street when he brought his sister along. Considering the situation for a while Kaushik left the stall holding his sister’s hand. Soon his eyes were caught by the board of ‘National Digital Library of India’. Quite a crowded stall. But Kaushik was shocked as he entered the stall. A stall at a book fair, but no books!

Stall number 317. Inside there is a large computer screen. And some volunteers with tabs in their hands and people of different ages gathered around them. Kaushik hesitantly asked a woman — ‘What is going on here?’ The woman smiled sweetly and said, ‘This is a project of the Ministry of Education under the supervision of IIT Kharagpur. By registering on this website, you will get everything from studies, career-related information to literature at the touch of a finger.’ Learning that Kaushik’s interest was for Joint Entrance, she said, ‘JEE Main – Advance, solved papers of NEET, study material, video lectures of IIT professors – everything will be available. No money will be charged to register.’ Hearing this, Kaushik’s eyes sparkled even in the late afternoon. Everything can be read on his smartphone bought with the money received from the Chief Minister’s ‘Taruner Swapna’ project!

Not only studies, but also rare documentaries and literature — everything will be available in this archive. Along with Simone de Beauvoir, Munshi Premchand, Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi, there are Upanishads, Vasco da Gama’s journal, Rabindra Rachanaboli, Sukumar Ray’s stories and poems ,Satyajit Ray’s Kheror Khata, Sherlock Holmes and many more. The repository also includes archives of iconic newspapers like ‘Mukti’, ‘Bharti’, ‘Bangadarshan’ and many others since 1895, as well as audio-visuals like Ramanand Sagar’s ‘Ramayan’, ‘Bismillah and Benares’ etc.
This huge archive has become a subject of great interest to everyone from eight to eighty at this year’s book fair, said Mahua Pal, head of the Kolkata division. In her words, ‘The archive contains about 12 crore items. To make it easier for those interested to find their desired topics, they have been divided into eight sections – School Education, Higher Education, Research, Patents and Standards, Career Development, Cultural Archives, Judicial Resources, Newspaper Archives. The number of registrations has already reached almost two thousand.

While leaving the fair, I met Kaushik again. His sister had five packets full of books in her hand. Noticing my look he smiled and said, ‘I don’t need to buy Joint Entrance books for now. So, I bought her some more books. It is anyways a wait for another year…’ and smiling, the two siblings walked on towards the metro station. They have a long way to go.