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Lying gathering dust on the pavements of Fountain are signs of a profession that is in its death throes. Languishing at the feet of commuter...

Lying gathering dust on the pavements of Fountain are signs of a profession that is in its death throes. Languishing at the feet of commuters rushing to cross roads, catch a train and meet deadlines are old, leather-bound books that are crumbling with age and neglect. Once upon a time, these tomes were dressed with the finest leather and carried their titles in embossed gold lettering. They occupied pride of place in libraries, bookshelves and book stores. If you were a man of letters, your books had to wear your status and class on their stiff spines.

No wonder then that these temples to the written word were called well-clothed8217; libraries 8212; and they housed, what else but well-clothed books. Today, however, the art of dressing your books has died and if you want to see a book done up like a fashion plate you will have to visit the city8217;s libraries to catch a glimpse. Chances are, you will only be allowed to look and not touch. Most of these books are not part of the lending circuit. In fact, they arerelegated to the status of museum pieces.

But till as late as 1978, they were the norm and not the exception. Most library text books used to be hard bound and book collectors too, used to prefer their collections to have a stiff spine.

But then came the birth of the paperback novel and in one fell sweep an entire tradition was vanquished. Cheaper than a hard bound copy, they soon swept the market. quot;Known writers used to get their books published in hard, decorative binding. But because of the price factor they resorted to paperback editions,quot; says Mankame, owner of the New and Second Hand NSH book shop. Besides, most paperback editions don8217;t have a broad enough margin to facilitate binding should the need arise. Leaving the binders in a bind.

quot;Hard bound or paperback 8212; for the readers, what matters is the text,quot; says Gulabchand Chowdhary. A part of the city8217;s dying breed of book binders, Chowdhary has been attached to the NSH for 30 years. He realises that his profession is on its way out and isresigned to his fate. quot;Taking into account the original price of books, the buying capacity of people and their inclination to buy, it isn8217;t very surprising that the demand to bind copies fell,quot; says Chowdhary. He8217;s right. Decorative binding adds between Rs 120 to Rs 500 to the cost of a book 8212; leather costs Rs 150 per piece. Rexin is cheaper at Rs 40 to Rs 80 per mt and cloth is between Rs 16 to Rs 20 per mt.

Even in the field of restoration and preservation, there is no longer enough work to go around. Says Jyotsna Aathle, librarian, University of Mumbai, quot;We need only two to three people to handle our binding work for us.quot; Besides, the University of Mumbai opts for ordinary binding and not decorative binding. quot;Also, students prefer to photo copy the pages of old text books and give them for spiral binding. They no longer look for a brittle book bound well or buy a well-bound copy,quot; says Chowdhary. From the few orders that he gets, he ends up earning a meagre Rs eight or Rs 10, per book.

quot;There8217;s workbut only for a handful of binders,quot; sighs Chowdhary. In fact, he is not going to pass down his vocation to his sons. He may have gotten into the business at the age of 12, when his brother decided to teach him the family skill, but now the economics have altered, forever. quot;There8217;s no money in it,quot; he says. And, the piles of leather-bound books being sold for Rs 20 on the footpath, speak of the value people put on his profession, today. A sad ending to what was once a glorious chapter.