logo
Coimbatore's Old Book Market is having a busy season with schools reopening

Coimbatore's Old Book Market is having a busy season with schools reopening

The Hindu10 hours ago

Hidden in plain sight near the Ukkadam Bus Stand in Coimbatore, beyond the rush of buses and blaring horns, thrives a quiet world. For over 30 years, it has steadily fed curiosity, supported students, and kindled the joy of discovery. This is the Ukkadam Old Book Market, a place where second-hand books tell firsthand stories.
Step inside, and you are greeted by uneven stacks overflowing with paperbacks, hardcovers, exam guides, and timeworn dictionaries. Dust motes swirl like confetti in the sunlight. If you listen closely, you will hear the rustle of pages being flipped, the murmur of titles being read aloud, the banter of booksellers greeting regulars.
For bookworms, this market is more than a retail space. It is a routine.
The market has 31 stalls arranged in a neat space; each one distinctly curated. Some stalls specialise in school and college textbooks; others stock fiction and biographies, among other genres. One may have a stack of books on Thermodynamics next to a box of Enid Blyton's Secret Seven novels. Another might surprise you with a Sidney Sheldon adjacent to class IX Mathematics textbooks. 'Whatever the syllabus, whatever the level, we try to keep something for everyone,' says KM Fazulul Rahiman, a veteran bookseller.
June and July mark the busiest time of the year, when the new academic season draws in a steady stream of students and parents. Guides for JEE, NEET, UPSC, TNPSC, and NET fly off the shelves, along with school textbooks and exam manuals. If a particular edition is unavailable, they go a step further by trying to source missing titles from elsewhere. They also help by suggesting different publishers, authors, or books others in the same age group or exam category have found useful, something that reminds one that this place is alive, not automated.
While commercial bookstores and digital platforms often dictate reading through bestsellers and algorithms, the old book market does something quietly radical. It listens. If a visitor mentions a book from 10 years ago, chances are someone here will have it, or know who might. The sellers frequently exchange stock, refer customers to one another, and even keep running lists of requested titles.
In a sense, this is what sets the Ukkadam Old Book Market apart: its community spirit. 'We work together, not against each other,' says K Mohammed Raja, who has manned his stall for several years. 'That is why the market has survived so long. If a customer walks away happy, even if it's not from my shop, that is a win for all of us.'
A sense of generosity fills the market. It is not uncommon to see a student walk in with a tight budget, and leave with a happy heart, having taken a lot of books back home. Most sellers here grew up valuing education and see themselves as playing a small role in someone else's academic journey.
The market is also a trove of forgotten gems. Between engineering guides and nursing handbooks, you will find everything from vintage travelogues to pulp thrillers, children's comics to political manifestos.
In a world that prizes speed and efficiency, this slow, attentive approach feels almost meditative. Customers are encouraged to browse, to linger, taking them back to old times. There is no pressure to buy, no hovering sales pitch. Time here bends a little differently.
Despite challenges, from changing reading habits to the dominance of online marketplaces, the market has held firm. Though sales dipped during the pandemic, Mohammed says, 'We have bounced back. Students and parents are returning.'
Regulars know they will get honest pricing, quality stock, and real recommendations. And newcomers are often surprised, not just by what they find, but how they feel while finding it. Most books here are also priced much below maximum retail price.
While online bookstores offer convenience, they cannot replicate this level of personal attention, adds Mohammed. The sellers speak from experience, often guiding readers to better editions or newer versions, and warning against duplicate or pirated copies, which have become a common problem in recent years. 'We get people bringing in cheap, poor-quality prints they bought online, with several pages missing, diagrams blurred. We do not entertain that; we believe in giving people books that last,' says Rahiman.
There is something special about second-hand books: each one carries the mark of a previous life, a folded page, a scribbled name, a coffee stain.
Each morning, as shutters rise and books are dusted off, Ukkadam's Old Book Market resumes its quiet magic. Rows of books, seasoned sellers, and readers ready to listen to the stories tucked between the pages.
The Ukkadam Old Book Market is open on all days, 9.30am to 9pm

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Kota's forgotten students: What happens when you don't crack JEE Advanced
Kota's forgotten students: What happens when you don't crack JEE Advanced

The Hindu

time3 hours ago

  • The Hindu

Kota's forgotten students: What happens when you don't crack JEE Advanced

The coaching centres of Rajasthan's Kota, often dubbed India's coaching capital, claimed four of the top ten ranks in the JEE Advanced results announced last week. As photos of the toppers flood city banners and the media celebrates them with interviews, a large section of city's students — those who didn't make it through the country's toughest engineering entrance exam — are left crestfallen, confused and conflicted. The Hindu spoke to three generations of Kota students who couldn't realise the IIT dream, to understand how life unfolded for them beyond the JEE ranks. For K. Seema, who gave up her passion for writing short stories to devote herself entirely to the exam this year, it was a rude shock to find she missed the cut-off by two marks. A native of Jaipur, she lived in a hostel affiliated with her coaching centre in Kota. Her performance at the weekly tests were so good that she started dreaming of a settled life in half a decade. 'It was the only way out for our family to escape poverty. My parents are blue-collared workers, and as a family, we firmly believed that an IIT seat and a good job would help us move up the economic ladder,' she said. There are options — going to IIIT, MIT or even taking a gap year, often called the '13th batch' in Kota dictionary. But confused and derailed by the near miss, students like Seema slip into a state of despair. Seema has not been answering the calls from her friends and relatives and is currently uncertain about her future. 'Should I try again this year for a rank or settle for a private engineering college in Jaipur? What if I don't get it next year? I would have wasted lakhs of money for my family, who saved it by sacrificing their basic needs,' she said. On average, 15–20% of JEE–Advanced qualifiers in recent years have reportedly trained in Kota. Though many who don't make it fall into despair and take years to recover, some do see the positives in the intense training and dedication they learned here. If present trends are any indication, however, Kota culture may have run its course. According to industry experts, student enrolment in Kota fell sharply in 2024, with numbers ranging between 85,000 and 1 lakh. This marked a significant decline from the usual annual intake of 2 to 2.5 lakh students in previous years. The reason is largely attributed to the charged ecosystem and what it does to students, especially ones who don't make the cut in JEE Advanced and Mains. Beyond the IIT dream In Kota, for every student who cracks the JEE, there are dozens who don't. Behind the banners of toppers and celebration lies a quieter, heavier reality—of far more students grappling with disappointment than with success. In a city obsessed with ranks, the struggles of those who didn't make it remain unheard and unseen. Alumni of these coaching centres who didn't crack the exam know there's a world beyond the IIT dream. Having internalised discipline and grit during their time in Kota, many have upskilled through college and work and some have gone on to outshine even the IITians. Nishant Soni stayed away from playing keyboard for two years when he was studying for more than ten hours a day to crack the JEE exam in 2012. 'I joined the coaching centre in 2010 with a dream of becoming an IITian as my father is a professor in Physics. I have been exposed to an educational upbringing and I wanted to honour him,' Nishant said. When he got a rank of 1.2 lakh, he was so demotivated that he did not want to talk to anyone. He received no support from the coaching centre and the professors, as they were busy celebrating the toppers. 'They are focussed on their marketing with successful students. Coaching centres do not bat an eye to the students who do not make it,' Nishant added. These coaching centres, however, helped Nishant build discipline and understand the true value of hard work; he is now working as a Senior DevOps Engineer and consultant in a Canadian multinational company named Telus. 'I reconciled to the idea that it is not my potential to get into an IIT. Everyone is not meant to crack IIT,' he said, adding, 'Cracking IIT is not the only way to become successful. Though mediocre in my academics throughout my life , I am earning almost equal to what IITians are earning today. So the whole point is to become successful in life and not just successful in cracking an exam.' In reality, many of these students succeed. 'Many students who didn't crack the exams come back after a few years having found meaningful careers in completely different fields – film, entrepreneurship, teaching, design, public service and more. They talk about how stepping away from the rigid coaching system helped them rediscover their real interests. But unfortunately, these stories are rarely highlighted because they don't fit the conventional definition of success,' Dr Ghasi Ram Choudhary, former Head of the Political Science Department at Government College, University of Rajasthan, said. The blame game Rahul Sharma, another Kota product who gave the exam twice, 25 years ago, says that the coaching centres always project the JEE as a do or die situation. 'In the second attempt, I secured 4,600th rank. But, at that time, there were only 3,000 positions and I did not make it to IIT,' Rahul Sharma, who has launched a tech startup, said. A native of Kota, he was under the pressure from his childhood to bag the rank. His days would start with going to the school and end with finishing the assignments given by the coaching centres. 'For more than 12 hours a day, we would study. Even CBSE schools in Kota were not strict; they used to allow us to go to coaching centres from the afternoon. Basically, students would choose such schools,' Rahul said. When he found out he did not make it even in the second attempt, Rahul Sharma was heartbroken. 'You feel the sting when toppers are celebrated. I have put in all my efforts and no one appreciated it,' Rahul said. Empathy from coaching centres A scientific paper titled EPH270 Kota: The Emerging Suicide City of India said that the culture of competition has been generating excessive stress and anxiety among students, proving detrimental to their mental health. 'Recent statistics reveal that the suicide rate among coaching students is on rise with 32 suicides officially recorded in 2023 and 17 suicides officially recorded in Kota till May 2024,' the paper said, adding that the coaching institutes are developing effective counseling module/intervention strategy for students to overcome stress and stop resorting to suicide. Institutes such as Allen Career Institute, Resonance, and Motion have collaborated with platforms like YourDOST to provide counseling to students. 'After the Rajasthan government issued guidelines a year and a half ago, most centres appointed therapists—something that was earlier handled by teachers. There is one therapist for every 500–600 students in our institute. We also offer regular motivational sessions to support students, and every teacher acts as a mentor for a batch of about forty students, who can reach out to her to share any of their problems,' said a faculty member from a reputed coaching centre, seeking anonymity. Then, why are students still dying by suicide? In May 2025, the Supreme Court sharply reprimanded the Rajasthan government and Kota police, asking, 'Why are these children dying by suicide, and only in Kota?' — describing the situation as 'serious' and demanding accountability for the rising student deaths. Coaching centres attribute the suicides to constant pressure from families, peers, and society. 'Most of the pressure comes from parents, and it's very negative. Many of them come from humble backgrounds. In the advanced batch, which is segregated with the cream of intelligent students, 90 percent make it to IIT. However, in the bottom-tier batches, none of them do. Yet they come here and spend two years only to succumb to parental pressure,' the faculty member added. However, such measures in Kota are too little, too late. In most of the centres, teachers are hired and trained for their academic knowledge, not for their ability to offer emotional support or career advice. 'Students are not encouraged to talk about failure or alternatives beyond engineering and medicine. These conversations are either avoided or treated as distractions. There's a pressing need to train educators to engage with students more holistically,' says Dr Ghasi Ram Choudhary. Nishant, however, gives the parting shot. He says though he didn't go to an IIT, his startup employs IITians.

JoSAA Counselling 2025: Mock seat allocation 1 result out at website
JoSAA Counselling 2025: Mock seat allocation 1 result out at website

Business Standard

time6 hours ago

  • Business Standard

JoSAA Counselling 2025: Mock seat allocation 1 result out at website

On June 9, 2025, the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) announced the results of the first mock seat allocation for JoSAA Counseling 2025. On the official website at candidates who have registered for the counseling phase can view the mock seat allocation. According to the website, applicants' choices as of June 8, 2025, at 8 p.m., were used to announce the mock seat allocation 1. The second mock seat allotment is scheduled for June 11, 2025. There will be 6 rounds of JoSAA counseling this year. JEE Advanced 2025 ranks will be used for admission to IITs, whereas JEE Main 2025 ranks will be used for allotments to NITs, IIEST, IIITs, and other GFTIs. JoSAA Counselling 2025: Important dates and time • JoSAA 2025 registration- June 3 to 12, 2025 • Display of Mock Seat Allocation-1 as on June 8, 2025- June 9, 2025 • Display of Mock Seat Allocation-2 as on June 10, 2025- June 11, 2025 • Reconciliation of data, verification, and validation of allocated seats- June 13, 2025 • Seat Allocation (Round 1)- June 14, 2025 • Online reporting: fee payment/document upload/response by candidate to queries (if needed) (Round 1)- June 14 to 18, 2025 • Last date for fee payment (Round 1)- June 18, 2025. JoSAA Counselling 2025: How to check mock seat allocation? 1. Go to the official website of JoSAA at 2. Press on mock seat allocation 1 result for JoSAA Counselling 2025 link available on the home page. 3. A new page will showcase where candidates will have to fill in their login details. 4. Press on submit and the mock seat allotment list will be displayed. 5. View the mock seat allotment list and download it. 6. Keep a hard copy of the same for later need. JoSAA Counselling 2025 registration and choice filling Candidates must enter their JEE Main 2025 application number and password (use the JEE Advanced 2025 password if you applied for JEE Advanced 2025, otherwise use the JEE Main 2025 password) in order to begin the JoSAA counselling. After that, confirm that the OTP was sent to the email address and registered mobile number for JEE Main 2025. They can then review the information shown, make any necessary edits, and save it. After that, verify the registration. The JoSAA registration procedure is finished once registration is verified, and the choice-filling procedures are then available. JoSAA Counselling 2025: Important documents and certificates required Candidates should prepare key documents for JoSAA counseling. Marksheets from qualifying exams, JEE Main or Advanced admit cards, category certificates, PwD certificates (if applicable), medical certificates, etc. are examples of these. Here is a list of all the documentation required for JoSAA counseling in 2025. Applicants must provide a medical certificate in the format specified in Annexure 7 (page 100) of the JoSAA information brochure. Candidates need to fill out the form after downloading it. If necessary, scan the same and upload it to the JoSAA Portal. Additionally, candidates need to carry a paper copy of the same document. JoSAA counselling 2025: Eligibility proof The state in which you passed your 10+2 or equivalent test is the state of eligibility. The following papers must be uploaded by candidates for JoSAA counseling in 2025: Submitting a class 12 passing certificate or a class 12 marksheet (or an equivalent). Students from NIOS and other boards can turn in their Class 12 identity cards or admit cards, noting the study center's location. Students from Bhutan, Nepal, or other countries who have completed their 12th grade can submit their passports with their permanent address in India. JoSAA Counselling 2025: What's next? Begin by checking whether you've been allotted your top preference. If not, try to understand the reason—reviewing last year's admission cut-offs and trends can give you a clearer picture of your chances. You can make wiser choices for the final JoSAA seat allocation rounds after looking at last year's numbers. It is a good idea to choose the top 5 institutes when choosing ones based on your JEE exam score. Applying to multiple institutes is more important than concentrating on just one. Therefore, be sure to include five colleges that you are interested in as your top options. Consider changing your preferences and seeing what happens in the next round of mock results if you discover that the college you received in the JoSAA mock results was your second or third choice. If you have a preferred region for study, prioritise colleges from that area at the top of your list. For instance, if NIT Andhra Pradesh is your first choice, consider placing NIT Warangal and NIT Trichy next. Location matters—but always review JoSAA's opening and closing ranks from recent years before finalising your preferences.

From Classroom to Counselling: What Every NEET Student Should Track Now
From Classroom to Counselling: What Every NEET Student Should Track Now

Hans India

time7 hours ago

  • Hans India

From Classroom to Counselling: What Every NEET Student Should Track Now

Byline: Gaurav Tyagi The journey doesn't end with the exam for lakhs of NEET aspirants in India. In fact, the most crucial and often overlooked phase begins right after the post-exam period, leading up to medical counseling. This stage is not about studying anymore; it's about strategy, awareness, and timely action. Yet, many students enter it with little guidance, making decisions based on panic or misinformation. If you've just taken NEET or are about to, here's what you should actually be tracking—from the exam hall to the counselling desk—without falling into common traps or relying solely on rank-based instincts. 1. Your Score is Just the Beginning—Understand the Context Once the exam is over, the immediate focus is on the answer keys. But beyond checking your correct answers, it's important to: ● Estimate your raw score carefully using official keys ● Compare your performance against expected cut-offs ● Track changes in the difficulty level and overall student feedback ● This isn't just about numbers—it's about gauging your standing in a dynamic pool of candidates. 2. Don't Obsess Over AIR Alone—Learn to Read the Layers All India Rank (AIR) grabs the headlines, but real admissions are about category rank, state quota eligibility, and reservation dynamics. You need to know: ● Your position in various categories ● Your eligibility for state counseling is based on domicile or schooling history ● How seat distribution changes between government, private, and deemed universities ● Tracking only AIR is like checking the weather by looking out one window. Broaden your view. 3. Track Official Counselling Authorities, Not Just Social Media Buzz Counselling processes in India are conducted by multiple authorities. You'll need to stay updated on: ● MCC for AIQ and central institutions ● State-specific counselling boards ● Deemed university admission portals Each has its timelines, documentation rules, and portal updates. Bookmark the official websites, and check them directly—don't rely on unverified summaries on social media. 4. Choice Filling Isn't a Rank Game – It's a Fit Game Most students make the mistake of choosing colleges by brand name or last year's closing rank. A more effective approach is to consider ● Type of institution (central, state, private, deemed) ● Fee structures (including hostel, caution deposit, and hidden charges) ● Bond obligations ● Distance from home, language of instruction, and local living conditions Make your list not just by preference but by fit. A mid-ranked college might offer a better clinical environment than a popular one with overcrowded OPDs. 5. Documentation is Not Last-Minute Work Start preparing your documents early. Common pitfalls include: ● Name mismatches across certificates ● Category certificates are not in the right format or are not valid for the current year ● Lack of proper domicile proof for the state quota ● Photos not matching those used in the NEET application 6. Track Your Own Decision-Making Process This may sound unusual, but during the counselling phase, your clarity and emotional control are as important as your marks. Many students: ● Freeze up when their first choice isn't allotted ● Panic and drop out of the process entirely ● Accept a far-off seat they could've avoided with better research 7. Stay Ready for the Unexpected The shift from tests to admissions is a mirror rather than a procedure. It shows how you deal with uncertainty, how you make choices when there is little clarity, and how you react when things don't go as planned. These characteristics—adaptability, research-mindedness, and emotional stability—are what will make you stand out as a future doctor as well as a student. Counselling should therefore be viewed as your first true exam in the medical field, where wisdom is more important than concern and clarity is more important than confusion, rather than as the last obstacle. (The author is Founder, Career Xpert)

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store