College Street publishers still recovering from sight of never-before deluge that dampened their Durga Puja

Publishers and booksellers in College Street, often considered the world’s biggest book market, are still recovering from the shock of seeing their wares submerged in water, no longer retrievable, following the heavy rains in the early hours of September 23.

The loss is sinking in even more now as normal life resumes after the Durga Puja holidays — which began almost immediately after the massive flooding — with most of their employees returning to work and the shops once again looking back at the damage.

Tridib Chatterjee of Publishers & Booksellers Guild put the total loss suffered by businesses, small and big, in the area at around ₹2 crore, the damage including not only of bound books, but also of paper, cover jackets, hardboards for binding, and other articles required for bookmaking. “Our total loss, for which we have claimed, is around ₹9 lakh,” Mr. Chatterjee said of his own publishing house, Patra Bharati.

Subhankar Dey of Dey’s Publishing, one of the biggest and most reputed Bengali publishers, said his firm lost about ₹8 to 9 lakh worth of books in the deluge but that the setback, more than financial, was emotional.

“Fire and water — they are like Mahishasura (the demon god) for books. Never have I seen so much water. We had floods in 1978, but I have no memories of it because I was too small then. Then there was Cyclone Amphan, which was more of a storm than a water. But this was something else,” said Mr. Dey, adding that College Street is used to problems — sometimes water, sometimes termites — and eventually comes out of it.

For many publishers, particularly smaller ones, what was more painful was the loss of Durga Puja releases they had just got printed. “We have lost over 1,000 books. When I came to the shop around 11 o’clock that morning, I went into a state of shock. The damage was done and there was nothing one could do about it,” said Sukanya Mondal, CEO of Deep Prakashan, estimating a damage of ₹3 lakh.

Dasgupta and Co., the oldest existing bookstore of Kolkata, put the total damage to their shop at a massive ₹40 lakh, including the loss of over 2,000 books.

“We visited the store to find 52 of our shelves under water. From rare books to documents to computers, everything was either damaged or lost. Whatever was damaged was beyond redemption,” said Arabinda Dasgupta, managing director of the iconic store.

He later wrote on social media: “No government official visited Boipara (book neighbourhood, that is College Street) even once. This behaviour towards the education hub of the city depicts a seriously condemnable image of the government. College Street breathes soul into the city with its heritage bookshops and rich culture.”

Well-known writer Amar Mitra called upon the State Government to improve the drainage system in the area and also provide some relief particularly to younger publishers. “I am told that young writers raised funds and collected around Rs. 5.5 lakh and distributed it among new publishers,” he said.

Gaurav Adhikari, associated with a publishing firm, said that many readers had expressed support on social media, offering to buy damaged books at discounted prices. “We are often told that Bengali readers are switching to English, but that’s clearly not true if you look at the support,” Mr. Adhikari said.

Santanu Ghosh, partner at Book Farm, said his publication firm lost books worth over Rs. 1 lakh, a big figure for a small publisher. “Nothing can be worse than the sight of bookshops being submerged in water. Even seniors in the business said they had never seen anything like this,” he said.