Billing for your stationery and book shop in Nagaland
A class booklist, a textbook still on the road and a school's term order, all in order.
The January booklist, a class eight book still on the road and a pen sold singly
February, when the schools open after the winter break
Here the school year begins after the long winter break, and the norm is that every student gets books on the first day. In the first fortnight of February every parent arrives with a list at once, and the line reaches the door. The lists are alike but not the same: a class with a new book, a class with the old, a child who has moved up.
The class eight science book that has not reached the village
A textbook that the school has set may not be on your shelf when the children come. Every day a child comes back to ask whether it has come, and you say you will call the supplier. You cannot say when it was ordered or what else on the same order is still missing.
The local-language readers from one printer
Some classes read from books in the local language that come from a single printer. They arrive in short lots on no fixed day, parents come back again and again to ask, and nobody has written down which family is waiting for which class's book. Some parents leave their phone number on a scrap so you can tell them, and the scrap is the first thing lost when the printer's parcel finally arrives.
From a nine-book list billed in one go to a school's term order on its own page
Hymn books in each language, counted apart
Hymn books in Tenyidie, Ao and Sumi sell to churches and families all year. Make each language's book its own item, and the count shows which is down to its last copies before a church walks in asking for twenty. When a church orders for a new choir, the bill goes to its secretary on WhatsApp with each language's books on their own lines.
Files, photos and forms for the board candidates
In January the board candidates come for files, photographs and forms. Keep each as an item with its count, and the report shows how many sets went out in the exam month, so you are ready next year. Parents from the far villages come only once, so the full set has to be on the shelf that day. The Nagaland Board exams for session 2024-25 began on 11 February 2025 for Class 12 and on 12 February for Class 10, so the candidates buy their files, photographs and forms in the weeks before.
Cards, wrapping paper and gift tags watched through the three weeks
Christmas cards, wrapping paper and gift tags sell for three weeks and then sit for a year. Make each its own item and read the three counts each evening. A late lot has a long road to climb here, so the one falling fastest is the one to ask for first, and sooner than you think.
Farming districts the textbooks travel to after the district headquarters
Textbooks go on from the district headquarters to the villages. A few farming districts they travel to.
- In Mon agriculture is the main economic activity, with paddy the main crop, grown by terrace and jhum farming.
- In Zunheboto 80% of people depend on agriculture and allied work, mostly shifting cultivation.
- Jhum farming of rice, maize, millet and kholar bean is common in Tuensang, and handicrafts and handloom are the main culture.
Tools for a Nagaland shop that sells textbooks and notebooks in the weeks before school
Bills on your phone
A bill for a church's new choir, twenty hymn books and twenty files, sent to the secretary.
Orders to suppliers
The term's titles ordered, with the day each carton is opened noted, so a village parent is told when her book came.
Low stock warnings
A warning when the board exam guides fall low in January, before the February rush.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the church youth group that buys chart paper and markers for its programmes and pays from its collections.
Questions Nagaland stationery and book shops ask
A textbook is out of stock because the consignment has not come further than Dimapur. How do I tell the parent where it is?
The title stays on your order until you tick it as arrived. Textbooks go from Dimapur to the district, then to the villages, so write beside the title which stop it is waiting at. The parent hears that it is at the district, and the answer is more than next week.
The choir's hymn books are due for Christmas Eve and the carton is late. What do I tell the choir leader?
Tell him the day you sent the order, as the supplier's page shows, and call him when you note the carton in.
A board candidate's form needs three photographs and I sell them in a pack of six. Do the three go on the bill?
Make the photograph an item sold by the piece and enter three. The count of photographs comes down by three, and the candidate pays once for the file, the photographs and the form.
Textbooks on the first day: how the school year opens in Nagaland
Government norms in Nagaland say every student should get books on the first day of the academic year, which begins in late January or the first week of February, according to a 2016 report.
School textbook consignments normally reach Dimapur first, then go to district headquarters, sub-divisions and villages, Morung Express reported in 2016. A shop's order for a title can therefore wait at any one of those stops.