"Covid has impeded our lives with losses that we can never overcome," said Biplab Paul laments while arranging the books on shelves of his shop. Biplab has stocks worth some lakh rupees lying unattended at his outlet and a nearby storeroom since Janata Curfew. He is not the only one who has witnessed the crisis, but hundreds of owners of the small, medium, and big bookstores share the same fear.
College Street or Boi Para as it is locally called is considered to be the largest book market in Asia. The area derives its name from the nearby colleges and universities located in the periphery of its vicinity. The area spans more than a mile and covers a million square feet. It appears to be a paradise for bibliophiles, the serpentine streets open up to a large space with honeycombs of bookstalls, tiny spaces but a vast variety.
The market has borne the heat of the pandemic, just like any other sector. Not just tiny bookstalls but the prominent bookstores ranging across the area have experienced a financial run-down owing to the lockdown. For most of the owners of the bookstores, the income comes on a daily basis. With over 100 days of lockdown and the complete shutdown of the educational institutes, the losses seemed hard to tackle for them. "Now we are running at 20 per cent of our business as compared to all the previous years," stated Biplab Paul the owner of Trusty Shop. The problem of business turnover is equally experienced by prominent names just as the roadside bookstalls. Pinaki Majumdar, the co-owner of Chuckervertty Chatterjee and Co. Ltd showed his despair while talking about the huge loss experienced during the complete lockdown. He added, "I'm sitting on over two crore loss at this moment".
The availability of books on online platforms has created a hindrance in the business of the College Street book market for the past decade. Their business getting mangled has worsened all the more during the pandemic days. One of the prime reasons for e-commerce is that the customers could avail books while staying at home. Though most of the books are in the pirated version, people still prefer buying them at a lower cost. But people forget the benefit of going to boi para and availing books. Not only the booksellers guide the buyer in purchasing the best book available in all languages, but as well showcase multiple numbers of choices from all across the globe of a particular genre.
To wipe out the dust fallen on the books since the lockdown days, Pinaki Majumdar started delivering books from his book store to the doors of the readers. He aided the readers by allowing them to stay at home and order books via Whatsapp or Facebook. He guides them through chats whenever necessary and also provides discounts on every purchase. "We have been able to cope up by selling 30 to 40 per cent of the books via online mode after the lockdown was lifted. Though we are doing this at a minimal level right now, in the future we'll make sure to make college street boi para a click away from the readers. " However for bookstall owners like Biplab Paul, marketing books through online mode felt like a dream, as major financial looses chained them for thinking at par with the big businessmen.
The additional loss was witnessed by the booksellers due to the cyclone Amphan. The storm led to a trail of devastation. The unattended piles of books since the lockdown days got washed away with the heavy rain and noxious storm. With the transportation being stopped, the booksellers couldn't find a way to reach their shops and secure the books. The books were seen floating in a pool of water just the day after. The Publisher and Booksellers Guild, which estimated losses of more than Rs 5 crores, launched its own relief fund. It is a registered organisation with hundred of booksellers and publishers, which also organises the Kolkata Book Fair has put in Rs 5 lakh from its own fund. Also, an initiative was taken by a group of students of Presidency University to rebuild 100 stalls. Biplab Paul said to The Bridge Chronicle, "The students also helped by donating Rs 2500 to the ones whose stalls have wrecked completely." Pinaki Majumdar shows another side of loss due to Amphan. "The retailers residing in the coastal areas surrounding West Bengal, who buy a huge lot from their publishing house are still crawling through the devastation created by Amphan with zero finances. This has marked loss at both ends - the publishers' as well as the retailers'," he added.
"We are at a neck-level loss caused one after the other - Covid and Amphan". This statement hits hard when the inhabitants of Kolkata see the buzz of boi para missing with a shade of torment on the face of booksellers. As days pass by, the booksellers are counting for the footfall of the bibliophiles heading towards them with a list of books they wish to read, confirming some rays of hope for their livelihood.
