Marginal analysis

Things scribbled in books are an art form of their own, and one as old as reading itself. It gave insights into what the reader was thinking about the book

Growing up in the city then called Calcutta, in the 1980s, you grew accustomed to second-hand and hand-me-down books. Textbooks, in particular, would often be handed over from those being promoted out of a class to those coming in. Occasionally, these textbooks would be a thing of beauty — a decade old, featuring the doodles and comments, of varying quality and comprehensibility, of all the schoolboys who had spent hours in class being bored, pen and paper their only escape. 

One was supposed to do one’s best to avoid partaking in this harmless entertainment, of course. We were all told, growing