Book by book, the wall grows

Day 1 - Book Count 36,200

Wearing identical printed frocks and clutching the hands of their parents, twins Rajanya and Rajyashree Biswas were proudly signing their name on a sprawling white board at City Centre (Salt Lake) on Wednesday afternoon.

The four-year-olds from Teghoria were the youngest donors of books on Day One to build the Aviva Great Wall of Education..

“They are in preparatory class now so we have come to give their nursery class books away,” said their mother Manisha Biswas, while the shy girls nodded and added, “Boi ditey eshechhi (We have come to give books).”

Little Rajanya and Rajyashree led the way as the Kund area of City Centre was transformed from a youth hangout to a destination for the young and old drawn to make a difference.

The book donation drive for underprivileged children — all books building the wall over five days will then be distributed among those who can’t afford them — was inaugurated by governor M.K. Narayanan with Sukumar Ray’s Abol Tabol.

“The wall must become society’s insurance and the panacea for ignorance, segmentation, compartmentalisation, inequality and a host of maladies.… Let us all together build the great wall of education,” said Narayanan.

The governor expressed the hope that “the people of Kolkata” would not just better the 1,23,000 books that Delhi had donated at the launch of the Great Wall of Education initiative in November 2009 but top the two-lakh mark.

Joining him in urging Kolkata to beat Delhi’s mark was Mithun Chakraborty. “Donating one book is not a big thing...the cause is so big that nobody can say no. Whichever book you don’t need you can give. One small book will make a difference to another life,” said the actor, amid cheers from the students of South Point School and Adamas International School.

Mithun’s words on the message board, high above where Rajanya and Rajyashree had managed to sign their names, was: “Great. Great. Please come forward and make it more than 1,23,000.”

His books for the wall? Sach on Sachin Tendulkar, and Stopper on a football hero.

Industrialist Harsh Neotia donated textbooks on environment education, biology, history and computer science, as well as an atlas, to the wall on his home turf, City Centre.

The ceremonial inauguration over, the stage belonged to the ordinary Calcuttan who cares. First in line was Moushumi Chowdhury, a professor, who came all the way from Santoshpur in a car filled with 12 bags of books. “They were my father’s. He passed away in 2001 and since then I have been wondering what to do with them. This seemed like something that he would have wanted. I hope the books will come to good use,” said Chowdhury, who will be back on Friday with books that her mother wants to donate.

The swelter of a September day did not stem the steady flow of book donors from Salt Lake to Howrah and the wall of books grew steadily.

The flutter of the afternoon was caused by actress Raima Sen, who breezed into the Kund area draped in a green chiffon sari and armed with seven books — on the history of English literature and an illustrated Giant All-Colour Dictionary.

“My mother (Moon Moon Sen) had given us (sister Riya and her) the dictionary,” smiled Raima. The message on the first blank page of the dictionary read: “For my babies — with all my love, Mummy. Please grow up clever…”

Books donated to the wall over the next four days will be segregated into what is relevant for children and what is not, according to language and class. Those which are not will be recycled and used to make notebooks, diaries and drawing books for the children. They will then be distributed by the Paschim Banga Sarva Shiksha Mission, Save the Children India and CINI Asha.

“Education is the best insurance that one can provide and it is in tune with this that the Great Wall of Education was conceptualised. Our aim is to take 50,000 students from street to school in the next two years,” said T.R. Ramachandran, the chief executive officer and managing director of Aviva India.


Chandreyee Chatterjee and Jhinuk Mazumdar, The Telegraph Metro