Boipara gets water jitters early, sellers rush to save stocks with sheets & raised platforms
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Kolkata: As rain lashed the city on Thursday, well before the official onset of the monsoon season, booksellers in Kolkata's College Street, also known as Boipara, scrambled to protect their stock.
Plastic sheets went up like emergency canopies, bricks were stacked to raise platforms, and waterproof wraps were hurriedly pulled over piles of books.
Many book traders also started wrapping the books properly before shutting shop, fearing overnight downpour and flooding with the meteorological department predicting more rain ahead. Not just that, shelves are being rearranged so that valuable stock moves to higher shelves.
This time, rain pain arrived early for the vendors at the book hub. "We usually try to protect ourselves from the scorching heat while doing business during this time of the year, not fight the rain," said Pratap Das, secretary of the Sir Ashutosh Booksellers' Association.
"We have instructed all the traders to move the stock to safety if it rains more intensely," he added.
At College Street, where over a total of 1,500 bookstores, street stalls, and vendors operate in a crisscross of narrow lanes flanked by institutions like Presidency University, Calcutta University, and the Sanskrit College and University, the book trade is more than just business — it's a way of life.
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But it's also highly vulnerable to the vagaries of weather, especially prone to flooding. Water gushes into shops and stalls whenever it rains heavily.
"I've already shifted my reference books to the top shelf," said Rajib Sardar, who has been selling law books for over two decades. "Last time, a chunk of my stock got damaged due to flooding," he recalled.
Cyclone Amphan left Boipara battered — torn covers, soggy textbooks, and waterlogged basements filled with books turned to pulp. "This sudden downpour has brought back bad memories," said Nilanjan Biswas of the College Street Book Stalls Owners' Welfare Association. Traders on College Street want the administration to ramp up civic infrastructure in the area.
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