Saturday, November 19, 2005

The Chai Wallah Wordsmith

Laxman Rao is a Delhi chai wallah with a difference, Randeep Ramesh in the Guardian reports.

Rao is the author of 18 novels, plays and political essays, and although he has hitherto made no money at all from his writings, his fortunes look set to change with his latest novel Ramdas. And he writes in Hindi:
Although it is spoken by half of India's 1 billion people, its writing is absent in the literary canon of India, which is dominated by exiles such as Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth. 'I do not read these books. They do not talk about the India I know,' says Rao. 'The stories do not mean anything to me or people like me. India lives in villages, small towns, on streets. The authors do not.'

Hmmm ... wonder if our teh tarik vendors can "pull" fictions as well as tea.

5 comments:

Greenbottle said...

probably the only likely thing our teh tarik guys can pull is that precious little handle in between their legs...

but then again who knows...afterall we have movie stars coming from officeboys, drug addicts and girls of err...questionable repute...

bibliobibuli said...

*LOL* this is all getting too deep for me. teh tarik anyone?

bibliobibuli said...

It's nice to miss things when you're overseas ... it makes you appreciate coming home. We'll hold you to your promise to buy teh tarik for everyone!

Yes, I blog first thing in the morning. I was plagued with insomnia a few months ago and would spring out of bed at 5 something. Blogging mkaes me happy so I find it a great way to start the day while I have a couple of cups of tea. But I often draft entries at other times of the day, particularly when I'm reading my favourite websites and inspiration leaps on me.

Anonymous said...

No but some newspaper vendors and "jaga"'s can.. they were students during the occupation and can write very well.

Anonymous said...

Well if you will write in Hindi.Maybe if he wrote in English... :)