Brown Paper Covers

June and July every year take me back to my school days. New books, Bags, various accessories, Rains and Gum boots. Now with Tara going to school the nostalgia has heightened. However, I never quiet understood the Indian logic of covering school books with brown paper.

In my days, it was the brown paper and then a plastic sheet for tropical places like Mumbai. These evolved to plastic coated sheets to lessen the efforts of covering the books. Mid-term the covers went haywire and one needed to redo the exercise of covering once more. Towards the end of the school year, we just left the books uncovered exposing the art work on the front and back. CBSE textbooks oftentimes had artistic covers and they made me wonder why the teachers make us hide them under layers of revolting sheets.

These days the plastic coated covers come in so many varieties – rolled papers, large sheets, pre – labelled . And the whole exercise of covering the books before the school starts. The books have evolved become more colorful and so have their jackets. It took me a whole one and a half hour to cover all the books they provided for the first year for Tara. Over the years, either this time will increase or I will learn to cover fast or Tara would take up that task from me.

Then there are parents discussing the ‘Brown-paper’ – where did you buy it from? Which shade – light or dark? Which books to cover? When to hand the books over? I hope my parents didn’t have the time or atleast choose not to indulge in such banter.

I remember the days when my school books needed to be covered. It used to be a great day in home. Usually, it was Aai who covered them and later me. But sometimes it was Aajoba and then it was so much fun. His book covering was accompanied by a lot of commentary.

“We will use the horizontal sheet for this one, We will use the vertical sheet for this one.” The entire hall used to be dedicated to the tasks. Brown paper sheets would be spread across the hall, with all the books on top of them. Then marks would be made for specific books ensuring only a finger breadth of brown paper was left on every side. Now came the scissors – Aaji’s tailoring scissors were bought to use promising her that they would be re-sharpened during Aajoba’s next visit to the market

“Book covering is an art, you should not just fold the sheets over the book….make slits like these and ensure that the brown sheet is folded inside then you will not need to use the gum…people who use the glue are useless….

Never use the stapler it spoils the book cover…use little bit of glue for the glossy cover”

 If there was no glue at home for such books, cooked rice paste was used to stick the wavering brown sheet

Once everything was in place a huge pile of books was kept ready on the study table. The labels were stuck always on the right hand corner. Aai was given the task of writing my name and specifics. Then Aajoba measured the length and breadth of the stack and then we set out to school bag shopping.

The nostalgia rekindles each passing year but the question still remains – Why cover the books with brown paper?