The 46th International Kolkata Book Fair will end on Sunday. While it was a paradise for book lovers, writers and lakhs of visitors, kleptomaniacs and book-lifters too were on the prowl as usual. However, major publishers and the guild had arranged for “extra cover” to keep vigil on them.
My Kolkata spoke to various publishers and stall owners/officials to find out the reality.
Sudipta Dey, owner of Dey’s Publishing said a few days ago during the rush hour, the authorities spotted a middle-aged man quietly trying to sneak out with a thick book in his bag.
“He had already bought books worth Rs 5,000 from us, and even then, he was trying to sneak out with a stolen book. It was such an embarrassing situation.”
While book-sellers and publishers come across such incidents on a daily basis, Dey said this year, the incidents of book-lifting have reduced substantially. Thanks to the extra security guards and volunteers hired.
CCTVs installed at various spots at Boimela Prangan Suvendu Das/My Kolkata
It’s part of the book fair
Almost all publishers said while ferrying books to the fair, around two per cent of the entire stock gets damaged. In that two per cent, a substantial amount of books get stolen.
“We all know this and admit that this is a part of selling books at the book fair,” said Sarita Barman, a partner of Rupa Publications. According to her, more books get stolen on the weekends as the stalls are overcrowded and it is impossible to monitor everyone entering the stall(s). However, the good news this year is that, the sales on an average across the book fair has gone up by 20 to 30 per cent and this covers the loss book sellers incur from books stolen.
Getting extra cover
Most major stalls have two gates and each gate is manned by guards who check bags and also compare the purchase with the bill. “Besides this, there are more than eight to 12 volunteers who keep a hawk eye vigil on the visitors,” said Dey. To keep a leash on book-lifters, the Family BookStore stall has installed CCTV cameras and there is a person constantly checking the CCTV grabs.
“For these reasons, our loss has been minimised. This year, we have not caught a single person without bill(s) and this has been possible because of the extra security guards,” said Sudipta Chakraborty from Parul Prakashani.
Four types of book-lifters
Somenath Dhar, marketing executive of Punascha, said, “I fail to understand how someone can manage to lift a thick book and tuck it into his/her bag without anyone having spotted it.”
According to the sellers, there are broadly four types of people who steal books from book fairs – while teenagers do it for fun, there are people who believe that books should not be commercialised, bookworms who cannot afford expensive book(s) and those who are involved in printing pirated copies.
While the fourth category is extremely rare, the first three are usually found to be on the prowl.
In spite of the heavy footfall, book thefts could be averted because of stronger security measures and CCTV cameras Soumyajit Dey/My Kolkata
Unique punishment
Publishers and book-sellers, however, have their own set of unique punishments for these book-lifters. For instance, at the Punascha stall, “If someone is caught stealing, the person is asked to read the entire book at the stall and then he/she is asked questions from the book. After that, the book is taken from the person and he/she is asked to leave the spot,” said Dhar.
Meanwhile, authorities at Parul Prakashani said, “There are always mildly damaged books with us. So, if a person is caught stealing, we try to give him a damaged copy by confiscating the fresh book. In case, we do not have a damaged copy of the same book, we provide some other mildly damaged book,” said Chakraborty.
Other publishers have a more traditional approach. At Patrabharati, once caught, the guards ask the person to pay availing the 10% discount and if he/she fails to do so, they are asked to return the book and leave.
