School days – the heady smell of new books

In those days, our school session followed the English year – January to December. The final exams would be held before school closed for the Christmas vacations and would reopen in the first week of January.

And – schools would reopen with the results of the final exams and the students would know who have been promoted to proceed to the next higher class and who would remain in the old class.
Along with the results, we would get the list of books that had been prescribed for the new classes and would move with our parents to the approved book shop that was situated on Ganesh Chandra Avenue.
Incidentally, the shop would already be having the book list and taking over the lot was just a matter of time. But – the best part was the heady smell of new books all around us.

I would keep moving down the aisles picking up first an Enid Blyton book of the Secret Seven or the Famous Five series. Another favorite was the William series by Richmal Crompton or Billy Bunter series created by Frank Richards. Then there was the Bigglesworth series penned by Captain W E Johns – these books were based on WWII action.
Obviously these new books would get added to our list. (to be continued ....)