searching a book in iisc library.

bhOndOO wanted a book to understand the basics of Theory of Computation. He went to IISc library, grabbed a computer, entered login/password and searched for “Hopcraft”. The machine displayed a book on Automata Theory. bhOndOO checked whether it was issued — it wasn’t. bhOndOO smiled.

He wanted to know the physical location of the book. So he looked for rack number. He found three numbers displayed on the screen: 629.8312, N799;2, and 141440. “Why so many numbers? Isn’t one enough to uniquely locate the book?”. bhOndOO looked at the issue counter. A young lady was serving requests. “It sounds too silly to ask this question. I will find it out myself. Anyway, it will be in Computer Science section.”, bhOndOO refrained himself from approaching the lady and noted the numbers at the back of a Tea Board coupon.

“These are the two racks of Computer Science. But their numbering seems to start with 621; and I want 629.”. He checked the nearby rack of Social Sciences: it was numbered 651. “I think, I should check it in 621 itself.”. bhOndOO spent next fifteen minutes searching for the book — in vain.

bhOndOO remembered the lady at the issue counter. “No, no. It is so stupid to ask her.”. bhOndOO then wandered in the library as if he was having an evening-walk in the garden. He came to a section where he saw a rack full of brand new Computer Science books. It was numbered 628. “Oh! I never saw this rack. The book must be here.”. Another fifteen minutes spent — but not in vain.

bhOndOO got another copy of the same book. He cursed the numbering system of the library and turned to go to the book issue counter. His enthusiasm was so much, that he almost collided with a girl standing next to the rack corner. “I am sorry.”, the fair young girl said. “Sorry, sorry.”, bhOndOO managed to remove his attention from her face.

“Sorry.”, the lady at the counter said. bhOndOO was puzzled, “Did she see me colliding with the girl and now making fun of me?”. The lady continued, “This is a reference book, Sir. This cannot be issued.”. bhOndOO realized why the books in the rack were looking new. “Oh!”, bhOndOO made a face as if he was heartbroken. He finally managed, “Can you help me locate the book with these numbers?”, bhOndOO showed her the Tea Board coupon. “The rack is on your left after you enter and towards the end.”. “Thank you.”.

bhOndOO went inside and started evening-walk again. He passed a rack where he saw the same fair young girl searching for a book. She looked at bhOndOO and kept looking for a while. After that bhOndOO could not believe what he heard. He felt, he heard, “Can you help me find this book?”. Then he heard, “Yes, sure.”, followed by a lip movement of “My pleasure.”.

“671.42745682? Such a big number?”. bhOndOO recollected that he had not been able to find a book having a smaller number. But bhOndOO was firm — afterall izzat ka sawal tha. “Let me see the rack number.”. bhOndOO checked the rack number: 670.341 – 671.423. bhOndOO wasn’t sure, but he exclaimed, “The book should be in this rack only. The library has very neat system of numbering the racks and the books. But often students keep hiding books. That is why we do not get it.”, bhOndOO tried to disclaim. The fair young girl smiled, nodded, went away to an adjacent shelf and started searching there.

bhOndOO understood that his disclaimer did not help improve his situation. “I must find her book now.”. He was standing in front of a rack having around 200 books. He remembered everything: google, grep, Ctrl-F, /, find, and cursed Larry, Sergei, Bill, Steve, Linus, Dennis, Bjarne for not making the commands work while searching for a book in a library when someone’s credibility is at stake!

He had just folded his round tummy and started looking at the bottom row of the rack, when he heard a young cheerful sound, “I got it!”. The fair young girl had found the book. “Thanks.”, the girl applied salt to bhOndOO’s injury.

The girl left bhOndOO and went towards the issue counter. bhOndOO kept looking at her from behind — sadly. He remembered DDLJ and prayed for her to turn back. He knew she wouldn’t. She did. Not only did she turn back, but also returned to bhOndOO and asked, “What is your book’s number?”.

After 30 seconds, bhOndOO had a book on Automata Theory in his hands.

Tags: automata theory, books, evening walk, hopcraft, library, racks, shelves, theory of computation