At DU’s old curiosity shop, a wealth of rare books

Ajay Bisht’s decade-old photocopy shop inside the Central Reference Library at Delhi University Arts Faculty Building could be a librarian’s envy.

The photocopied volumes of “A Critical Pali Dictionary” published by the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters are arranged in a neat row beside a copy of “Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy” by Mircea Eliade. A spiral copy of Alistair Macintyre’s “After Virtue (A Study in Moral Theory)” keeps a photocopied journal presented at a National Workshop on “Sociolinguistics in India: Themes Framework and Methods” company.

Started by Vijay Bisht and Ajay Bisht in 1998, the shop has been catering to the DU students. But how did the collection begin?

“Students place orders for photocopying books from the rare books section of different libraries. But some forget to collect them or leave them behind once they are through with exams. That is how this collection grew,” says Bisht.

The collection even includes books that are no longer in circulation at the University Library. And there are photocopies of books from collections of former professors.

Bisht has acquainted himself with students’ needs and ensures that photocopies of the books are readily available.

“Students of first year English MA require a photocopy of this book at the beginning of the session in July every year,” says Bisht, pointing to a copy of Virgil’s “The Aeneid” translated by Robert Fitzgerald with an introduction by Philip Hardie. The edition is difficult to come by in the market.

The shop does brisk business from August to March, the season when students are running from pillar to post to get hold of notes.

Priyanka Singhal, a post-graduate student remarks: “This shop is an important resource for us.” Sushmita, her classmate, points to a copy of “Apuleius”, translated with an introduction by EJ Kenney, that she found in Bisht’s collection. “At 50 paisa per page, such books are a steal”.

So has there been any perceptible change in the attitude of students over the years? “I share a personal bond with several of them. But over the last four years, there have been some incidents of books going missing. These coincide with instances of books vanishing from the library. So I have to be vigilant all the time,” he says.