Last month, a professor-friend invited me to a storytelling session by a Hindi author. My immediate response was a firm no. First, the session was in Hindi—a language whose literary world I’m largely unfamiliar with. Second, I hadn’t even heard of the author, someone named Divya Prakash Dubey. But, on the day of the event, I made up my mind to give it a shot and accompanied her to Akshara Theatre, in Central Delhi.
The ninety minutes I spent listening to him narrate a story—woven with memories of his cousin, life in Lucknow’s Papermill Colony, affairs, career, literary aspirations, and curious acquaintances—turned out to be one of the most enriching literary experiences I’ve had in a very long time and even left me teary-eyed by the end.
Soon after the event, with suggestions from my friend, I dived into Dubey’s works. He’s been championing a movement called Nayi wali Hindi—an effort to normalize the use of everyday, colloquial Hindi (peppered with English, as we often hear it) in stories and novels. I guess it also began as a marketing ploy, which somehow clicked for Dubey. Since I didn’t have the patience to read through Hindi, I tackled him through Storytel and Audible.
October Junction, Ibnebatuti, Aako Baako (short story collection) and Yaar Papa kept me engaged for a week. The themes he explored were astonishing: a son tracking down his widowed mother’s college lover to help her rediscover companionship; a startup poster boy’s unconventional romance with a ghostwriter; a sugar daddy’s experiences with younger women in small-town India; the Bollywood dreams of a Mumbai taxi driver; a housewife from Bareilly planning to enter a reality dance competition. These revealed the complex, poignant, silent, and unseen lives that millions around us live every day.
Dubey has also worked on the Hindi dialogues of Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyan Selvan. He’s quite active on Instagram and snippets from his storytelling can be viewed there. I’ve also bookmarked a few of his Hindi literature recommendations that I plan to read soon.
His most popular work is Musafir Café. Unfortunately, the audiobook version is yet to be released. Wondering if I should convince my friend to read it aloud and send me the recording!
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