A BOOKMARK

 A BOOKMARK

I wanted a subject for an article. I am not accustomed to writing articles for a living, which is quite a difficult proposal, when one would be forced to search for subjects and go on writing to earn one's daily bread.  But, as once A.G. Gardiner wrote in one of his articles, it is not writing the article but finding and choosing a subject. 

He had written thus:
 Sometimes the difficulty is not writing the article, but choosing a subject. It is not that subjects are few: it is that they are so many. It is not poverty you suffer from, but an embarrassment of riches. You are like Buridan's ass. That wretched creature starved between two bundles of hay, because he could not make up his mind which bundle to turn to first. And in that he was not unlike many human beings. 

 However, Buridan's ass, is actually an illustration of a paradox in philosophy in the conception of free will.(Free will, a rare thing these days!) It refers to a hypothetical situation wherein an ass that is equally hungry and thirsty is placed precisely midway between a stack of hay and a pail of water, and not between two bundles of hay, as mentioned by him in his article.

Be that as it may, choosing a subject for your next article, is always a difficult task. Sometimes you get luck, just as I was the other day. It so happened. I was glancing through some of my book collections and out came from one of those thick hardback ---was it 'Julius Caesar' ? may be - but out came this:

It was right in the middle the book and thus landed right into my laps, giving me the fodder for this article! A Bookmark! I must have used it umpteen times in its various forms. Initially, it must have been those dog ears - folding down corner of a page of the book, which served as a bookmark, but bookmarks never stopped me from reading but rather gave me the starting point from where to continue my reading. How this very phrase 'dog ear' came to exist? The ears of many breeds of dog flop over, and the folded corners do look like such ears of dogs:


     [ This I made hurriedly for Sarah, my grand daughter] The practice of using dog ears as bookmark was common, especially for paperbacks, which were  designed comparatively cheaper than the hard cover ones. Though its usage was prevalent may be since late 18th century; which is quite evident from the address of Willium Pitt, the Younger, to the House of Common on February 3, 1799 has mentioned this phrase in this manner: "--those opinions quoted by the Hon. Gentleman from dog's eared pages of pamphlets.." This shows that it was also used to keep sheets of paper together, in the absence of a stapler or paper clip. It was also commonly used to mark a section or phrase in a book that one found important or had a personal meaning. Accordingly, the size of the dog - ear ranged from top of the page to its bottom (dividing the page into half) or simply dog eared small corner. I do not remember when I stopped using dog ears as my book marks. This practice of mine was frowned upon by elders at home as well as those stern looking librarian, who wanted to preserve the library books in their original condition.
 
The dog ears were strictly 'no -no' for me now. So I had to switch over to the BEST bus tickets:

These were my college days, and initial working days and you could find these tickers in all the paperbacks of James Hadley Chases, A.A. Fair's Bertha Cools and Donald Lams, Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Masons and Aghata's Piorot Episodes.

Then I started using printed bookmarks in the serious stuffs from Thomas Hardy, Somerset Mogham, Albert Camus and others.

We know many voracious readers and great writers. Did they use bookmarks or dog eared the pages for references? Imagine R.K. Laxman's choice of his bookmarks. Would he have a dilemma - to choose between his two his favourites, the crow and his common man?

And what about Charles Dickens? Would it have been melancholy or humour? So, David, Murdstone and Peggotty from David Copperfield or Mr. Pickwick from his Pickwick Papers? 


    David                          Peggotty

 

               Murdstone                             

                                                                      Mr. Pickwick

 Bookmarking was a great feature during our times. Has it become obsolete now? May be the bookmarks are not doing their job well. Our lives, especially of young kids on the block, are so intertwined with computers, smart phones, and other gadgets that they no longer read those big fat books. Reading big fat books has been replaced by on line reading. We have forgotten to indulge in the simple pleasures of life, like writing letters and sharing everything with friends; it has been replaced text messages devoid of any emotions.

But all is not lost as yet. There are these people - writers, journalists, doctors, lawyers and other professionals, who do read fat volumes, may be just for their professional need and not for pure pleasure, as we did then. And they do need bookmarks and before we can figure out ways to improve the job of a bookmark, we need to find our what is the job of a bookmark with these changing times. A lot of research needs to be done.    

 Here are some innovative bookmarks:

Of course one can make naughty and wacky ones to suit one's taste and sense of humour. The basic idea behind this venture is to create interest for reading, especially in children. Today all the information wanted is just a 'click' away and children too have become computer savvy. 

Hello Marketing People  from Pharma Companies, I'll give you something to ponder - for making your leaflets in form of bookmarks for doctors:

 

So, you see, bookmarks could be very versatile and also find their way into commercial world.


Based on a lot of informal discussion with kids and their parents, and observation of my own I have realised that not many of them know what a bookmark is. However, some children did stump me with their knowledge. Here are some of my discussions/ observations:

I [My ex-student]

Ankit (I had tutored him. Now he is student of the final year of Media Management) says that he has seen bookmarks but hardly ever used them. “There was need to. All the readings that we do is ‘online’; even our study material. Even when I read thick books, I remember the page where I had left. I know that it is strip of leather, card, or any other material, used to mark one’s place in a book. It gives idea of the progress we have made – how far we have read and how far we still to go, and as I told I do try remember on which I was.” 
Me: Novels? Works of great writers? As a Media person you may need it. 
Ankit: Novels are ruled out at present. No time. Again we can get everything on the Net. We can copy – paste whatever we need, highlighting the relevant paragraph/ references or even ‘link’ it. (All so simple, isn’t it?)

II[A telephonic conversation with my grand- daughter, Sarah, who is nine year old smart kid. They stay abroad.]
 I had sent a WhatApp message to my daughter-in-law, with that very photo of the bookmark attached; to find out whether Sarah knew about 'bookmarks' and immediately I received a call from Sarah. " Hello Baba, it's bookmark - it's clearly written on it - I like bookmarks, they stop you from reading - but they don't stop from reading - but why there is no string to it? " 

"So you do know what is it?" I asked

"Ha baba. It’s a bookmark, जो एक कागज़ होता है- जिसे एक धागा ---"

"Explain to me in English, please." I interrupted her.

"Okay baba. Bookmark is that paper with string which we keep in our book to remember till where we had read. But there was no string in that photo."
" Sarah, bookmarks need not have strings attached, like the one in the photograph or it could be just a string or it could be a dog ear on the page,"
" What's dog ear?, Baba?"
" It's a turned - down corner of a page in your, to mark that page to know how far you have completed reading." I;ll just WhatsApp photos on your mummy's phone;  just a string attached to a book for bookmarking and dog eared page."

   

 " Oh, that's dog ear - folding the corners of pages - I do that quite often when I don't find my bookmarks. But I did not know it's name. Now will tell my friends, specially Tania because she too folds corners of pages." 
 
 III [WhatsApp - msg. exchange with my nephew]
Nikhil:Our kids, both Alok and Shrushti, use bookmarks.  They have them in plenty. In America, at least in my kids' schools', children are encouraged to read books and made aware phrases like 'dog ears' and use of bookmarks.
Me: Do they ever resort to dog ears?
Nikhil: No, of course not! Not allowed in school as well home! Strictly no, no for dog eared pages!(His wife is strict disciplinarian]
Me: What about you. Did you ever dog eared the pages of books?
Nikhil: Always. Still do!
Me:  जैसा मामा वैसा भांजा! हाँ, हा!

  IV [ Conversation with Sonali, my niece]
 "Sona, I know that you have used  various forms of bookmarks, just the way my son did, even resorting to dog earring corners pages. What about your kids?"
" Vinay mama, Shamuda (she has completed her schooling and is in professional college), used to make or rather design her own bookmarks right from her days in school and she still does. At times I wonder how she finds to do all this, despite her busy schedule."
" What about Shahan and Shiyab (Her twins, some 8 years kid)?"
" I make bookmarks for them, now that Shamuda is in Pune. This instils and inculcates habit of reading, don't you think so Vinay mama?"

 
Finally, here is my favourite bookmark, from the Toon -world for all the kids:

Yours -- who else can it be---

Yours ever,

Vinay Trilokekar