Billing for your stationery and book shop in Assam
Notebooks, guides and covers for a free-textbook session, billed on one phone.
Tools for a counter that sells everything except the textbook
Many shops, one owner
The shop in town and a second counter opened for the April weeks as two places under one account. Each place has its own count, so a notebook sold at the new counter does not thin the shelf you count in the shop.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the family of a child who joined late, with the guide, the photocopies and the cover each dated.
Low stock warnings
The cover and the pencil box shown as running low before the first Monday of April, when the table at the school gate opens as well.
From the photocopied chapters to the guide for a child who joined late
The missing chapters photocopied by the page, on the late child's page
The child admitted in May has no free book yet, and the lesson has started. The mother asks for the first chapters photocopied, a few pages at a time. Bill by the page, put it on a page in the family's name, and when the free book comes the page shows what she paid for the weeks without it.
The notebooks promised for Monday, asked for on Thursday
A family says it will take its notebooks on Monday and comes on Thursday, after the Bihu holiday. Write the promise on its page with the day, and the count of notebooks falls only when the bill is made. By Thursday the page shows the promise and its day, and the count shows whether the notebooks are still there.
The April weeks, day by day, from the first Monday to Bihu
Every day's sales are kept, so when April ends you can open the days from the first Monday to the holiday and see which items sold before Bihu and which after. Next April you order the notebooks and pens for the days that really sold, and not for a week that was only a worry.
Tezpur's old trade, Tinsukia's industry and Dibrugarh's tea sales: where the school families are
School families in Assam earn from trade, tea and industry. A few districts, and what they are known for.
- Under the British, Tezpur became an important centre of trade and commerce, used as a river port for the surrounding tea gardens.
- Incredible India describes Tinsukia as Assam's industrial powerhouse for tea, oil, coal and commerce.
- Dibrugarh launched Upper Assam's first public online tea auction in September 2026; 18 buyers took part and teas averaged about Rs 207 per kg.
Free textbooks from the state, a session that opens at Bihu and the child admitted in May
Every child's textbook is free, so your shelf is all that goes around it
From the first class to the last, an Assam child gets the textbook free, so no family walks in to ask for one. They come for the notebook, the cover, the pencil box, the guide and the colour pens. The biggest line of your shelf is gone before the session opens, and what you sell instead goes by the piece, in a rush, with no count of what the first week took.
The session opens in April, in the same weeks as Bihu
New classes begin in April, and so do the holidays of Bohag Bihu. The shop is full for a few days, then half the lane is away and the rest is at the festival. The notebooks that were promised for Monday are not asked for until Thursday, and the ones that were not promised are gone by Saturday. The week is a guess from first to last.
The child admitted in May has no book to put the cover on
Admissions run on into April and May, and a child who joined late does not have a free textbook until the second round comes. The mother comes to you in the meantime for a guide or a practice book, because the lesson has begun. You sell her what you have, and when the free book finally arrives she comes back for a cover and nobody remembers what she took before.
What Assam stationers ask about free textbooks, late admissions and covers
Admissions run till May. Can I see how many families came for a guide in each week of April and May?
Yes. Every day's sales are kept, with guides on their own line. Open the days of those weeks one after another and count the bills that carry a guide.
A child admitted in May wants a guide until her free textbook comes. Can I keep that on one page for the family?
Yes. Open a page for the family and put the guide on it with its day. When the free book arrives and she comes back for a cover, the cover goes on the same page.
The Assamese-medium school in my lane takes its guides in the first week and the English-medium school in the third. Can I read the two weeks apart?
Yes, if each guide's name carries its medium and class. Open the days of each week and the lines show which medium's guides went in which week, so next April the second school's guides are not ordered for the first school's days.
A free textbook for every child, from class Ka to 12
Assam's state textbook corporation printed 2,94,12,300 free textbooks for 50,77,720 students from class Ka to 12 for the 2024-25 session. A stationery shop in Assam works around the free book, selling the notebook, the cover and the guide that go with it.
Assam's school session starts in April, admissions run until April-May in most schools, and extra free textbooks for new students are printed in a second phase. The children admitted in those weeks are the ones who come to a shop for a guide before the book comes.