SAHITYA'S SANSKRITI

What would a writer and editor of literature magazines for ove half a century do if he couldn't write or edit? "After a terrible accident, I had to shut my magazine down. But there was only one thing I knew about," remembers a lean, keen eyed, hawk nosed Satya Narain Mishra at 74. That thing was Hindi sahitya (or literature). So he opened a bookshop in his home: "My sons had grown by then. They helped me open a shop and liason with a Pune press to get some of our own publications out." Peep into the ground floor living room in Irla, and you see an old man watching the news with a stove burning in the ktchen behind. Enter, and a world opens. The tiny 200 square feet room holds over 20,000 books covering completely every inch of wall. The furniture is utilitarian: a chair, an iron cast bed with faded bedsheet, a basic wood top desk and a 19 inch TV. The quiet is what gets you. Unlike common commercial area hustle, sifting through literature of every era here, next to Mishra who agrees to conversation, "Only if you agree to join me for some chai" seems you root you somewhere, as, in Mishra's words "Hindi Sahitya would – if you gave it the chance."

"Hindi literature was going through a Golden era pre-independence," remembers this ex journalist. "Post independence it's development and usage was motivated by dirty political games." Hence, according to Mishra, great southern stalwarts like Raj Gopalachari who had earlier served the cause of Hindi sahitya's propagation, started denouncing it. "Also, as a result, whereas earlier people used to read such for the sake of mental and emotional enrichment, the latter generations were concerned with the language only if it afforded them professional usage," he trails. He states this as reason for major publishers in Lucknow, Allahabad, Kanpur and Varanasi shifting focus to Delhi or shutting shop. "But now, courtesy the media channels – there's some interest in the language again – as a unifier," he claims, beginning to show us his books. The collection ranges from classic authors like Premchand and Jayshankar Prasad to more modern Kamleshwar and Nirmal Verma. He has Hindi translations from Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Oriya, Telegu and Tamil classics… and more. There are complete works of Dharamveer Bharati, Premchand, Harishankar Parsai, Sharad Joshi, Dushyant Kumar, Saadat Hasan Manto… to name a few. Hindi Dictionaries of every configuration (Hindi-English, Marathi-Hindi, Bengali-Hindi…), grammar books, technical Hindi books on science and laymen's Hindi books on law.

"Film and theatre persons – Prakash Jha, Nadira Zaheer Babbar, Dinesh Thakur and Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, to name some – are constant visitors here," Mishra lists. "But a lot of my customers also are servicemen and business executives who've grown up with the Hindi language and miss it. Despite it's easy to miss location, the shop sells over 25,000 books a month due to Mishra's personal contacts, the location and a reputation built over 10 years. He points out, however, that what's happened with Hindi vis-à-vis English has happened with every regional language: "People take 'losing your roots' as a cliché nowadays. But why are so many NRIs sending their children to India to grow up?" NRIs who, when in Mumbai, buy an average of Rs 5,000 worth of books from Mishra. He believes India itself is headed towards a similar NRI identity crises – "minus a society and language they can trace their influences to."

While his shop supports contemporary writers – Surya Bala, Malti Joshi, Gyan Chturvedi – he complains that it's difficult to gauge who will last: "Most current writers quit writing after one or two novels. It takes at least four works to establish style and reputation." Further contribution to the literary cause? The 24/7 floods drowned text worth over Rs 1,00,000 in water, along with a compilation of Mishra's own writings. "This has helped many libraries – to whom we've donated over 67 thousand books." A final contribution: "A self published series where I've introduced my favourite classic writers through chosen short stories in large type – for beginners." Much like he introduced himself as a book seller – by going back to the basics.