The heady papery smell of new books and the fear of the new session’s syllabus, all wrapped up in brown paper, with snipping scissors and sticky sellotape strips (of course with a little help from mom too!)
One of the first lessons we learnt in teamwork was the brown paper wrapping exercise for our new school books. It was a carefully observed ritual which involved us and most often, mom. The new textbooks and notebooks would be carefully stacked in a pile on the floor. The daunting pile of books would rise to our eye level, as we’d sit cross-legged in front of it and eye it like a mountaineer eyes a far-off summit. Mom would break the reverie however, with the snipping sound of the scissors and we would go about the task with an army- like discipline.
Mom would do the honours, by pulling off the rubber band and straightening the roll of the brown paper, coated with plastic film. Each book would then be laid on the paper, and the rigorous process would follow. The art of wrapping the books was guided by its own holy proportion of sorts! Open the book half way, ensure each edge is about an inch within the brown paper, cut off the brown paper above the mandatory one-inch mark, make the incisions on the top and bottom centre of the wrapping paper, wrap the paper over the edges of the book-covers and secure the paper flaps tightly, with neat strips of sellotape. The mark of a well-wrapped book was the tightness of the wrapping paper over the edges. Any mistake which left the edges puffy would be frowned upon and carefully corrected by mom. Book after book, the pile of unwrapped books would reduce and next to it a pile of smart-looking brown books emerged.
With the last book wrapped, out came the labels! Although each label had the same details (name, class/ standard/grade, division, and school) to be filled, the colourfulness of the label was one of the first expressions of individuality and preference. The most favourite label, of course, would grace our favourite subject’s book and vice-versa. The daunting pile of books, now ready, would be given another look. Finally, the leftover wrapping paper would be rolled up carefully and tied with the rubber band and stowed away for future use.
