'SEE PAGE' SCRIBBLER MENACE

By, SHOBHA VENKATRAMAN

(LIBRARIAN).

The ‘See Page’ syndrome or Menace- Call it what you will. Just drop these words on any Librarian and see him/her recoil in horror. Some might just shrug it off as something to be swept under the carpet.

All of us at one point of time or another must surely have come across those nasty scribbling in the books of our school / college/public library. No?

You open a book to browse and there you find those words “ See page number 50…” guiding you! Your curiosity drives you to flip the pages obligingly (as it is exactly designed to). And what do you find? “See page 75…” again. You carry on impatiently till you reach the target. And then you wish you hadn’t! You are horrified to find the choicest string of expletives your mother wouldn’t want you to know!  

What devil drives some to deface the books thus?

Let’s watch our little readers analyze the issue:  

Abhimanyu Bhatia, HeadBoy of Sfs (Junior Wing): " These children scribble thus because they want to draw attention, as they are generally ignored by everybody."

Ankur Rana, Cultural Secretary: "These children are well aware that their vocabulary consists of forbidden words. Strangely they cannot tolerate that other children remain good and be ignorant of these words. To convert them they write thus in the library books to make them aware of the existence of these words."

Anurag Verma, the energetic, restless Student Librarian of Class V points out with uncanny perception for one so young, that, when students get into a fight with each other, they feel like calling out names to hit out. But the fear of being turned to pulp by the other party prevents them from doing so. Library books serve as safe outlets to vent out their suppressed feelings of frustration and anger.

Vidhur Goel, a solemn, responsible boy of the same class says gravely: “You know Ma’am, Some children of very rich parents are not afraid of anyone. They just want to pass the time. They don’t want to read. They want to make fun of books. So when they are free, they write bad words for time-pass.”

Aditya Srinate of V-E agrees that people write thus, only to pass the time. They are just not interested in reading.

Raj Kumar of the same class: “These people are not aware of the value of books. Just think. Without books, you would be talking in baby language like “Buh-la-la’”.

Pretty, curly haired and fair Radhika Kakkar, the Student Librarian of Class IV-C says with wide-open eyes, “These children don’t bring their rough copies. So they write in their library books. These books have to be returned anyway. They don’t write in their text books for then they would be caught, you see.”

Both Mohit Kumar and Radhika clubbed these writers of profanity as belonging to the tribe of toilet- wall scribblers!

 Jaya Sharma of Class VG: “These people live in colonies where their neighbours frequently use bad language. The children then note them down in their library books to have fun.”

Eshita Anand of Class V: “You’ll find that mostly boys indulge in such activities. They place bets with each other to dare the other to write”.

 Oozing with goodness, our kind-eyed, ever-smiling, ItiArora of Class V writes: “Nowadays boys like watching WWF. They (especially boys, mark you) learn all about fighting and betting (on anything) from these programmes”.

 Ruddy-complexioned, tough, bright and confident Aman Chhabra of Class V explodes: “You know Ma’am, these children don’t have proper manners. They KEEP WRITING, KEEP SAYING and KEEP HEARING bad language. They write to ridicule other people and try to make others also like them.”

 Wheeeeeew!

 Profound words of wisdom indeed! Nurtured the right way these youngsters can be a potential force to reckon with. So I wonder … Why not invite their suggestions to stop the menace?

 Enters our Squad again:

 Aman Chhabra“We can stop them by punishing them again and again and forbidding them from using bad language. Whack them.”

Aditya Srinate says clearly: “We the students (“No, not the teachers,” he insists) should tell the other students not to write in the library books.”

Mohit Kumar of Class IV-C feels otherwise: “The teachers (not the students) have to explain nicely to them.” Radhika agrees. She states that only a handful of children resort to such nasty writings.

Vidhur Goel: “We can stop this by not giving books to them for a long time. By explaining to them that it is wrong to write so…”.Raj Kumar: “Explain them the value of books or you can just warn them thus: “Don’t do this or else…”.

Anurag Verma: “How to stop them? Explain sweetly and nicely to the rude children again and again. And again. One day they are bound to come your way.”

 It is a point to be noted that we come across such acts of vandalism mostly in Academic and Public Libraries. Not in reputed organizations, where the readers are responsible grown-ups. Education alone can build awareness and instill a sense of responsibility in one. Open discussions, seminars and workshops involving the children could go a long way in wiping out this menace.

Recently I came across a book in our library in which were scribbled words which somewhat put me in a dilemma:       “I love this book”.