Featuring my mother's literary life, a septuagenarian 'comrade' with an affinity for truth, and a crude estimation of the Hindi vanity-publishing market
Personalities of big 'L' Literature like Muktibodh, Neeraj, Agyeya used to emerge from these small town literary circles. But there is a limitation to the attention they may garner today or I guess the coverage of such writing is not in the books, magazines or media we consume. Kumar Vishwas is an example of a poet who rose to fame through such goshthis and kavi sammelan, however, ultimately became involved in politics due to the 'limitations' of small town literary circles
Btw this is coming from my own limited engagement with the literary circles in Agra- of which my grandmother was an integral member, as a professor and published academic in Hindi Literature and I was seldom allowed to attend due to strict parents!
What a beautifully written piece! Thank you for sharing it. I think this should be taught in classrooms. On cultures of reading and literary spaces in peripheries. -Rahul S.
An absolutely delightful essay Tanuj. I have an academic interest in smaller cities, so I drank in these insights! We can have the luxury of meeting and discussing literature if you want. We are in the same city, even if not two lanes apart :)
This reminds me of my father's bookshelves that have been recently overwhelmed by these gifted books on history, politics, fiction and the inferior, enthusiastic cousin 'poetry'. Probably as a student, he was more invested in the curriculum-directed Kamleshwar, Nirmal Verma, Ashok Vajpeyi and likes. Sarkari job, missionary politics, LPG-flavoured standardisation of small cities, and a numbing social media addiction took away a lot of literary taste and rigour from him and the cities he lives in. I'm thinking of all the magazines he started and subscribed to. There is an audience which subscribes to the same sense of identity, in fact, he keeps on sharing a book called Brahmin the Great by Niyaz Khan, who is an IAS officer apparently. I have also seen more informed literary gatherings in Bhopal and Hoshangabad which remains far from the lonely metropolitan writing. Anyway, I'm blabbering here; thank you for this, it has really unpacked so much felt and unarticulated,
I think that earlier, culture, even in small towns, was curated and on-display. It was a somewhat public enterprise. There was, eg., one famous video-cassette-rental shop in Muzaffarnagar, and when you went there you saw a full assortment of movies on the shelves, Bollywood and Hollywood, all curated by the shop-owner, and you felt like you wanted to watch them all. You literally felt the weight of the unseen. Likewise with bookstores that displayed magazines and pulp novels near the bus stand. All of that has vanished, because curation now happens algorithmically, on a private device. There are no physical public spaces where you can point out an artefact and say to a friend: 'Have you seen/experienced this?' This is impoverishment.
Reminded me of the time I came across a person in the Prayagraj express train a few years ago who ran a small hindi lit mag. The writing wasn't great. I happened to mention during our long conversation that there are ghazals being written in English as well. He was not convinced that ghazals could be written in English. I was carrying a copy of Agha Shahid Ali's ghazal anthology Ravishing Disunities and in a rare moment of generosity gifted that copy to him. Not sure if he would still have been convinced.
Allahabad, being a university city, being a high-court city, must have a slightly different vibe to it, especially w.r.t. literature. Anyway, I can totally imagine the gentleman's behaviour and I am sympathetic to the notion that ghazals aren't possible in English 😀
Hi Tanuj, loved reading this, and getting an insight into the local writer community in Muzaffarnagar. Yes writers' groups/salons are so important - I don't think I would have taken off as a writer (or it would have taken much, much longer) if I hadn't joined a brilliant group of writers many years ago, called the Bangkok Women Writers Group (they are still going strong in Bangkok). The most important thing for me as an amateur at that point, was the validation - knowing that other writers were taking my writing seriously. And that they were interested enough to consider it and critique it. The feedback was invaluable to improving my writing. So why do you think it doesn't happen often enough in English-speaking literary circles in India? Could be a subject developed for one of your future Substack pieces? I'd be interested to read it! - Tejaswini.
Thank you, Tejaswini! Yes, early validation is so crucial. I was lucky to have it from literary magazines like nether and Out of Print early on, although I never really found a group in the early days (apart from poet friends, discussions with whom were always tinged with some aggression - anyway, I always had to listen). I think writers who've published books tend to be more project-focused, and do not really look for wide engagement and feedback. They believe their work is best exposed when its nearing its end, that too to a carefully selected set of 'beta readers'. At least this is what I think happens with the English-speaking circles in India. I think writers who haven't published books are more generous with their work at early stages - and also, therefore, more given to making wonderful writing circles. I could be completely wrong, of course, and even at its best this reasoning explains only a part of what happens. It really is a matter worth pondering. What do you think? :)
Hi Tanuj, sorry couldn't reply earlier. You make a good point - beginning writers are more generous with their work at the early stages. This may be because there is a certain security, since there is nothing to lose. When one is a beginner there is no pressure to live up to anything. Not so later, when one feels that writing made public needs to be of a certain standard. Personally I don't like to show my writing to anyone at all - not even my closest, most trusted readers - till I have polished it as much as I can on my own. Getting comments at too preliminary a stage never works for me, because the writing/ideas are still too fragile, and easily turned to dust if exposed to the air too soon!
A very evocative piece of writing.
Personalities of big 'L' Literature like Muktibodh, Neeraj, Agyeya used to emerge from these small town literary circles. But there is a limitation to the attention they may garner today or I guess the coverage of such writing is not in the books, magazines or media we consume. Kumar Vishwas is an example of a poet who rose to fame through such goshthis and kavi sammelan, however, ultimately became involved in politics due to the 'limitations' of small town literary circles
Btw this is coming from my own limited engagement with the literary circles in Agra- of which my grandmother was an integral member, as a professor and published academic in Hindi Literature and I was seldom allowed to attend due to strict parents!
Thank you for reading, Asmita. A bit of a pity you weren't able to attend the events in Agra.
What a beautifully written piece! Thank you for sharing it. I think this should be taught in classrooms. On cultures of reading and literary spaces in peripheries. -Rahul S.
Thank you for reading, Rahul
Loved it.
Thank you for reading :)
An absolutely delightful essay Tanuj. I have an academic interest in smaller cities, so I drank in these insights! We can have the luxury of meeting and discussing literature if you want. We are in the same city, even if not two lanes apart :)
Thank you, Mukta. Imma take you up on the invite soon 😀
This reminds me of my father's bookshelves that have been recently overwhelmed by these gifted books on history, politics, fiction and the inferior, enthusiastic cousin 'poetry'. Probably as a student, he was more invested in the curriculum-directed Kamleshwar, Nirmal Verma, Ashok Vajpeyi and likes. Sarkari job, missionary politics, LPG-flavoured standardisation of small cities, and a numbing social media addiction took away a lot of literary taste and rigour from him and the cities he lives in. I'm thinking of all the magazines he started and subscribed to. There is an audience which subscribes to the same sense of identity, in fact, he keeps on sharing a book called Brahmin the Great by Niyaz Khan, who is an IAS officer apparently. I have also seen more informed literary gatherings in Bhopal and Hoshangabad which remains far from the lonely metropolitan writing. Anyway, I'm blabbering here; thank you for this, it has really unpacked so much felt and unarticulated,
I think that earlier, culture, even in small towns, was curated and on-display. It was a somewhat public enterprise. There was, eg., one famous video-cassette-rental shop in Muzaffarnagar, and when you went there you saw a full assortment of movies on the shelves, Bollywood and Hollywood, all curated by the shop-owner, and you felt like you wanted to watch them all. You literally felt the weight of the unseen. Likewise with bookstores that displayed magazines and pulp novels near the bus stand. All of that has vanished, because curation now happens algorithmically, on a private device. There are no physical public spaces where you can point out an artefact and say to a friend: 'Have you seen/experienced this?' This is impoverishment.
Reminded me of the time I came across a person in the Prayagraj express train a few years ago who ran a small hindi lit mag. The writing wasn't great. I happened to mention during our long conversation that there are ghazals being written in English as well. He was not convinced that ghazals could be written in English. I was carrying a copy of Agha Shahid Ali's ghazal anthology Ravishing Disunities and in a rare moment of generosity gifted that copy to him. Not sure if he would still have been convinced.
Allahabad, being a university city, being a high-court city, must have a slightly different vibe to it, especially w.r.t. literature. Anyway, I can totally imagine the gentleman's behaviour and I am sympathetic to the notion that ghazals aren't possible in English 😀
Hi Tanuj, loved reading this, and getting an insight into the local writer community in Muzaffarnagar. Yes writers' groups/salons are so important - I don't think I would have taken off as a writer (or it would have taken much, much longer) if I hadn't joined a brilliant group of writers many years ago, called the Bangkok Women Writers Group (they are still going strong in Bangkok). The most important thing for me as an amateur at that point, was the validation - knowing that other writers were taking my writing seriously. And that they were interested enough to consider it and critique it. The feedback was invaluable to improving my writing. So why do you think it doesn't happen often enough in English-speaking literary circles in India? Could be a subject developed for one of your future Substack pieces? I'd be interested to read it! - Tejaswini.
Thank you, Tejaswini! Yes, early validation is so crucial. I was lucky to have it from literary magazines like nether and Out of Print early on, although I never really found a group in the early days (apart from poet friends, discussions with whom were always tinged with some aggression - anyway, I always had to listen). I think writers who've published books tend to be more project-focused, and do not really look for wide engagement and feedback. They believe their work is best exposed when its nearing its end, that too to a carefully selected set of 'beta readers'. At least this is what I think happens with the English-speaking circles in India. I think writers who haven't published books are more generous with their work at early stages - and also, therefore, more given to making wonderful writing circles. I could be completely wrong, of course, and even at its best this reasoning explains only a part of what happens. It really is a matter worth pondering. What do you think? :)
Hi Tanuj, sorry couldn't reply earlier. You make a good point - beginning writers are more generous with their work at the early stages. This may be because there is a certain security, since there is nothing to lose. When one is a beginner there is no pressure to live up to anything. Not so later, when one feels that writing made public needs to be of a certain standard. Personally I don't like to show my writing to anyone at all - not even my closest, most trusted readers - till I have polished it as much as I can on my own. Getting comments at too preliminary a stage never works for me, because the writing/ideas are still too fragile, and easily turned to dust if exposed to the air too soon!