ON BINDING AND BONDING :)

No time for covering books? No problem!
Liffy Thomas
Working parents seek out people to cover books
— Photo: M. Karunakaran
With the schools set to reopen, the hands are full for the staff of shops engaged in binding and covering books.
CHENNAI: R. Niveditha got her new textbooks and notebooks some days ago. They need to be covered with brown sheets before her school reopens on Wednesday. Her grandfather is out of town and her parents, working couples, are busy, but she is not unduly worried.
“By Wednesday evening, I need the books. My school reopens on June 2 but it's fine, I don't need to take them on the first day,” the Class VIII student of St. Michael's Matriculation Higher Secondary School explains to the staff of a shop engaged in binding and covering the books.“I generally take help from my grandfather, or if it's just one or two books to be covered in the middle of the year, my parents do,” says Niveditha.With schools set to reopen in the coming weeks, people who help cover books are sought after by many working parents. Quite a number of book-binding shops gear up for more business this time of the year.A majority of these shops charge between Rs.5 and Rs.8 for brown paper covering and between Rs.12 and Rs.30 for binding and providing a plastic sheet cover.
After reading this article in THE HINDU,I was really shocked and surprised.Do we mean to say that we are so busy, we are unable to spend an hour doing works for our kids.Dont we go for shopping,dont we chat,dont we gossip.It is not just covering the notebooks and text books with brown paper,there is a lot of bonding in this binding.Even now I remember the days my dad did this job for us.He was a very busy man but he always had time when it was for his kids.We sat with him watching him cover the books with brown paper.We were always eager to hand him book after book and after that was done the label part.We used to select the picture and hand it over to him to be stuck in the books.The way he wrote our name and subject was so cute,that the very thought of it can bring the scene before me even now.It was not mere brown paper..it was love that flowed between us,the time he spent with us,the small sweet talks we had during this job, that still keeps these memories fresh in my mind.And it was a ritual after all the books were covered ,he used to hand it out with lot of grace and wishes.He taught us how and when we grew up we also started doing this job along with him.Even with my daughter,we used to sit and talk about each and every subject.The only change was we had flowers and god and goddess pictures in the labels but now its cartoons.Only when you experience it ,you will understand what beautiful bondage it is.I dont agree about the lack of time,we need to give these small joys and memories to our kids.I personally feel the people who are outsorcing this to shops are missing on this beautiful experience and the magic of love.