Kolkata: Students crowdfund to help College Street booksellers

KOLKATA: A group of six friends — all in their late teens — organised a social media crowdfunding to support Amphan-hit book sellers on College Street and bought books worth Rs 50,000 from multiple sellers. They will now distribute the books among needy kids and gift back to those who had generously donated the amount to them.
“I treat College Street as my second home and seeing the books floating in water after the storm two months ago, had left us heartbroken. We visited the place a week after the storm and found the condition of the book sellers was getting worse with books worth several lakhs damaged and sales plunging because of Covid. We then thought of standing by them and started seeking help from friends on social media to come up for the cause,” said Tanay Nag, a second year student of chemistry honours at City College.
It was a first of a kind attempt by friends Tanay, Kornika Chakraborty and Subhrajyoti Das and soon they found more members for the cause in classmates Monoj Ghosh, Imanshree Das and Partha Sarathi Saha. Barring Subhrajyoti, a second year chemical engineering student, all of them are chemisty honours students at City College. They managed to pool a fund of Rs 50,000 from 108 donors and bought the books from College Street on Thursday. They were also among the donors.
“We have developed a personal bonding with some of the booksellers. We wanted to do something for them which will help them but not hurt their feelings,” said Kornika, a resident Tarak Pramanik Road near College Street.
Many book stalls on College Street that attract huge number of school and college students are yet to recover from the physical damage caused by the super cyclone on May 20. The next day, books were found floating on the waterlogged street.
“Sales have hit an all-time low with hardly any buyer. Several shop owners are doing odd jobs. We plead to the city, we do not need relief materials. Just come back and buy books,” said Najbul Mallik, who owns a second hand book store on College Street.