The Bookworm – a worm with many legs (a.k.a.= awesome teamwork) and its incredulous Jumble for its Library...

A jumble sale... by Bookworm... a library for children. I have been to jumble and garage sales abroad but not in India. Been to flea markets too, especially in Goa. I knew that Bookworm, the well known children’s library in Panjim had been involved with jumble sales for the last eight years.  Their website had shown photos of last year’s jumble but it just does not give the real involvement  compared to being part of it. Wow!!

This was my first Bookworm jumble. To say its organised is an understatement. It’s a military operation in every single aspect. Now just reflect the issues you have to consider:

·        

 Where shall we hold it ?  – like last year, Bookworm got special help from Sports Authority of Goa – this is always useful as it keeps costs down and the location is not only central but semi enclosed so its large without being open.  Its great that local bodies help small people.

·         What items to sell at the sale ? They had some 15 categories – furniture / books / clothes / bags / shoes / electricals / food / gifts / household / plants / jewellery / toys and lifestyle accessories ++ . A never ending list. But, it must all be useful and functional.

·         How much do we collect? It was awesome. The amount the people of Panjim and surrounds contributed. I felt at times that they had emptied their whole cupboards and homes so they could refurbish once again – from the jumble, if needed!!

·         How shall we work out the categories? No problem – everything was separated by sex or age. Incredible. 

How do we separate ? Simple – as items came in, they were separated and put into cartons – these cartons were from earlier jumbles so they may have had a reference but still there were very few mistakes on the day itself. 

·         Where shall we store what we receive? I don’t think that anybody had an idea of the actual volume which would pour in. No problem. They had made arrangements at multiple places for the 270+ cartons to be stored, and this excludes the furniture!!  

·         How many volunteers will come – I was shocked. Past employees who had worked at Bookworm came and spent the whole weekend there. Some came from Panjim, some from out of town, some were family, and many were well wishers and friends. They just came like the followers of Babylon and Zion (did I get that right?) As I recall there were 53 helpers pre jumble weekend and at the actual jumble there were 87 volunteers.

·         Food – what do we do ? What do we serve for sales and to the helpers ? Amazing. All volunteers got coupons for two snacks, one lunch and two teas per day. Tasty wholesome food in ample quantity. Temperature hot too. The food for the Jumble was typically Goan – lot of local flavour, pork, chicken, prawns, rice, pastries, and cookies in all permutations. I took the chicken biryani for my dinner on the main jumble night as I did not feel like cooking and for Rs 160/- I had a whopping portion. 

Most important, this particular section had

     ladies who were tireless. Always smiling, always helpful to visitors and volunteers. Mostly grannies with a high emotional quotient and “physical” age of late 20’s !! I was stunned to see their vitality and vivacity – standing most of the time with a nonstop crowd demanding their delicacies.

I could go on but this gives you the feel of the scope of the project – it was a military exercise which could not but succeed as we had a brilliant smiling taskmistress in charge

who, velvet glove in hand but iron fist inside, knew she had a team of really loved, faithful, committed helpers. She had a target, vis a vis last year, but never once did I hear her raise her voice.  People wanted her to but she managed to get all the youngsters, the seniors and others together like a team I have never seen. Even her dear husband, a well known medical personality, and her son were press ganged into it – no airs at all.

I had delivered a few items on the 08^th Feb at the library and seen the ladies at work making the banners and packing the cartons. 

 
I had also gone around putting up their posters at places familiar to me and not one party refused as all Goans value education and reading habits for young children.

Saturday, 11^th Feb. the day of the unpacking and arranging, I landed up at 10.00 am. There were a few people but more arrived as time passed. A festive atmosphere despite the temperature soaring around 35 deg. There were no fans and the tempos were disgorging carton after carton. There must have been over 35 tempos bringing in 275+ cartons + furniture. I just was dumbfounded at the number of cartons being unloaded. These were immediately carted off to each section for unpacking and laying out. 

Starting with books, the display moved to clothes, toys, children’s clothes, household, shoes, art, electrical, music, jewellery, food. That was the basic order. Books – I was in seventh heaven and had to restrain myself as the books were going cheap and as time passed on Sunday, they were at throwaway prices. As I was an outsider, and my first time around, I felt it best to meet as many people as I could, be generally useful, help by moving some cartons and opening as many as I could. I had a stall but that was a tent and those came in only by mid day.

Gradually time passed, the books got laid out, the clothes and bags got hung and the electricals (Ferdy and Allwyn being the stars who could sell you a piece of sand as gold dust!) got sorted.

  

The hottest area was the household where a fan came only late in the day – sorting crockery and bric a brac is no fun but it’s important the way they did that as it’s all about catching the eye. I learnt a lot that day.

That first day, by 4.30 pm, after bending and standing throughout the day, I was pooped. I am sure others were more so. Then of course, they began the Early Bird Sale – from 5.00 to 7.30 pm. Lots of people came to see and to evaluate- many bought due to the special rates.

I made my first sale in my art stall: late in the evening, a young couple came and bought my oil painting “Order within disorder”: an appropriate title for today’s activities.

Sunday morning dawned – a day when I would normally get up late and laze around. But it was the Main Day –venue time was 8.30 am but didn’t manage till 9.15 am. Crowds started pouring in. The heaviest time was from 11.00 am to 12.45 pm. Families, couples, and individuals. Locals and foreigners. Then suddenly the crowds dried up – siesta time. After lunch time, I took time off as there were hardly any buyers and spent 90 minutes at home sorting out personal matters. The evening was again busy. Bookworm had also planned what to do to reduce cases of “lifting” merchandise – bags and high end clothes were tied to the lines. The young and old volunteers were obviously experienced and had eagle eyes. 

The main section was where clothes were in job lots of Rs 50 and Rs 100 – the local ladies just bought by the bucket load!!                                                                             

Some buyers looked like merchants rather than actual users, esp. the electrical section. Items were moving fast. This was the first time that Bookworm had an art stall. It was very tough going. I had different styles and different media – cloth, paper, canvas, old and new, landscape to abstract to portraits. It was interesting as people were – “I know nothing about art” to “I like it but it’s too expensive” – yes, art can’t be the same as Rs 300 for a dress or Rs 2,000 for an electrical item. But still we sold a few pieces and most important, sold the two largest pieces which would have been difficult to take back to storage.

By 6.30 pm, huge sales had taken place. Nearly all the bags and ladies clothes had gone. A large number of books, household and shoes. By 7.00 pm, we were winding up as it was getting dark. Typically Indian, people came last minute and some even asked to see items which were packed! By 7.30 pm, I had closed shop. The loaders had come and efficiently, just like the previous day, the reverse process began. Table cloths followed by chairs followed by tables and then tents just quietly disappeared into the oncoming darkness.  

You know, anyone can have a flea market or a jumble sale. The art lies in getting people together, collecting a wide range of good quality items (all working or as good as new) and having the knowledge of how to place hem and sell them. This is where Bookworm excelled. We Indians regrettably are rarely appreciative of the success of others. We are usually negative or with a crab mentality... we run down people. Suffice it to say, without much ado, that Bookworm’s jumble was a terrific success in terms of organizational ability, teamwork and achieving targets. I for one have signed up again for next year, God willing, Bookworm willing. Be there in February 2018. 

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