BHUBANESWAR: ‘Mogambo Khush Hua’ sounds better than ‘Mogambo Prassan Hua’, said Nikhil Sachan, an IIT-IIM graduate-turned- Hindi novelist leaving the audience in splits during the first session ‘Hindi is Cool’ on the concluding day of Odisha Literary Festival-2015 here on Sunday.
Speaking about how the approach to Hindi can draw more readers to language books and how Bollywood movies are a mixture of several regional languages, Nikhil pointed out that words are pleasing to the ears and draw a person’s attention. Hence dialogues like ‘Dil toh bachha hai ji’ became famous. Had the word ‘hriday’ been used instead of ‘dil’, it would not have had the same impact. Giving several other examples, Nikhil said, “Koi bhasa cool ya uncool nahi hoti, bas bolne ka tarika cool, uncool hota hai” (no language is cool or uncool, it’s the way in which it is spoken which makes it so).
In an interactive session with another well-known novelist and short-story writer Divya Prakash Dubey, Nikhil said the glory days of Hindi literature are not gone, it’s just that efforts have to be made to restore it. “Hindi language writers like us either have to sit and cry over the fact that Hindi novels are on the wane or get up and make an effort to revive those”, said Nikhil, the author of ‘Namak Swadanusar’ and ‘Zindagi Aais Pais’.
On why he choose Hindi as a medium at a time when other IIT graduates are writing in English and have earned their share of fame, Nikhil said he can express himself better in the regional language. “Hindi is a sweet language which I learnt from my mother while English was taught in school through chastising,” Nikhil said.
Talking about the importance of Hindi language in our daily life which mostly goes unnoticed, Dubey chose to give example of an Indian currency in which the amount is mentioned in words in 17 different languages but Hindi and English appear in a bigger font, which he said signifies the importance of the language and its popularity as well. Dubey has authored two Hindi bestsellers ‘Terms and Conditions Apply’ and ‘Masala Chai’.
While only a few hundred copies of popular Hindi writers sell, the demand for English novels is in lakhs, they pointed out. Explaining why Hindi lost its significance in the last few decades, Dubey said English became the professional language and every middle class family wants that their children should learn English to fit into the job market.
However, the young authors think good days for Hindi language are here again. Some years back, publishing houses used to deny to print books written by IIT/IIM graduates, but now a few publishing houses are coming forward to revive the market for Hindi novels. Moreover, the young authors have also opted for social networking sites to popularise Hindi novels.
“To begin with, just pick up a Hindi novel and try finishing it. You would automatically pick up another and the process would continue,” the authors advised the students present at the event.