SELL,DONATE OR EXCHANGE | ||
| Sujan Maharjan, 18, says he’s been collecting books since his class five days. He didn’t have any siblings to pass them down to. And giving them away to junk for a few Rupees was not a way he would choose to part with his cherished collection. “The books were a valuable part of my life,” says Maharjan. “Junk is definitely not where they belong.” Then a few months ago while surfing facebook, he found a page called Bookmandu – a campaign to collect, distribute and reuse old books. After going through its information he immediately caught up with Suman Khatiwada, 23, the page owner. With some other volunteers who had joined the project they have now been able to collect some 500 used books and magazines. “After I completed my Bachelor’s degree, I wanted to donate my books to anyone who would need them,” says Khatiwada. “But I didn’t know who and where to turn to.” Then it struck him. “I knew most of my classmates would be going through the same dilemma. In that case, the books would either be lying idle on shelves or packed off somewhere and probably in a few years, sold off as junk paper.” He then started by collecting books from his friends and neighbors. By word of mouth promotion along with the facebook page, more people started donating. “We have nine people now who’re actively promoting and collecting books,” says Khatiwada. “But we’re still in our initial phase and our current target is to get more volunteers and build a stock of as many usable books and categorize them for an open library of books donated by the students for the students.” Using a small room in his house in Swayambhu as an office space and a storeroom for Bookmandu, he has been shelving books in neat racks. A month ago, Rs 500 were collected from each member to print flyers that they have been distributing at several colleges and student hangouts. “After we have enough books and a good space, our plans are to first start a book-for-a-book exchange program and also make photocopies of notes taken by students available,” Khatiwada shares. “When we start, we want to be prepared with enough materials. In the long term, we want to distribute the donated books to deprived and underprivileged students in remote areas.” Though they are currently in the process of figuring out how to handle the logistics of their project, Khatiwada says he is quite positive that they will succeed with the support and sense of volunteerism from the youths. While the group of youngsters is still in their planning phase, there are people who have also applied the idea of reusing old books with added commercial advantages. Shambhu Prasad Baral, proprietor of International Secondhand Book Store on Exhibition Road, started buying and selling old books from 1996.  “When I was a student, I had gone to Calcutta where I visited a place called College Street,” shares Baral: “The street used have rows of old books piled on top of each other like haystacks and students passing by would scavenge the piles for books they wanted. I always loved the concept of reuse but I also knew everything had to be done in a systematic way.” Once he came back, he individually started collecting and buying books from his friends and contacts. “I remember waiting at college gates during exam times and handing out brochures to every student asking them to sell me their used books,” Baral recalls. Students were already selling and buying old books among their friends or people they knew. Baral jumped on the prospect of having a shared hub where students could carry this on and would give him an opportunity to pioneer the concept commercially. Soon, he had collected a good stock of books that he categorized and shelved in rows of racks with aisles that people could walk between as they hunted for the books. The books he bought from students at 30 to 40 percent of the original prices, he would sell them with a certain profit margin which would still be almost half the price you would have to pay for a new book. He also encouraged his customers to bring the books back after use for which they could get back 50 percent of the price they had originally paid. Along the twenty-five years of business, Baral says he has had a regular flow of students from and outside the Valley who come to buy and sell books. “It’s definitely beneficial for students as not only can they get books at cheaper prices but also are guaranteed a certain return after they have used them,” says Sagar Nepal, a BA third year student at Ratna Rajya Campus as he looks for a book in Baral’s store.  The Exhibition Road alone has three of the oldest stores that sell secondhand course books. Tulsi Poudel of Hajurko Pustak Sansar, one of the three stores, also says that there is a greater demand for old books than new ones in her store. But due to financial risks involved in buying and selling old books, she says she also sells new books. Baral explains that publishers tend to shuffle or alter the contents of course books without a change in curriculum to trick the students into buying new books. “Moreover, the Curriculum Development Center should also make it mandatory to have clear information for students and buyers regarding curriculum change on the last page of a course book stating for how many years will it be effective and the course contents as well,” he says. Baral, who collects even outdated books, , has leased one extra room near his bookstore and two rooms in his house for storing old books and he’s further looking to start buying and selling used laptops as well. “I don’t believe that books can ever be outdated,” says Baral. “There’s always someone who can learn a thing or two new from it. Especially books of principles, philosophies and ideas – they never get old.” Agreeing with Baral, Khatiwada adds, “Books can change the lives of people, especially in a country like ours where many children are still deprived of basic education due to their inability to buy books. I think it’s selfish to stock up on books if you’re not going to use them.” Though Baral and retailers like him have taken the concept of reusing old books into a commercial frame and the volunteers like the youngsters of Bookmandu plan to have a network of students sharing their used books, their purpose is the same. Sell or exchange or donate books to have them passed around. You can’t let something as valuable as books go to waste, neither in grimy dumping sites nor in the neatly stacked idle shelves. | ||
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
OUR NEWS ON REPUBLICA ENGLISH DAILY
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