When talking about Gujarati literature, one can’t miss to mention legendaries, who laid the foundation of literary world, be it Narsing Mehta’s Bhakti Sahitya some 500 years ago, or Akho, Narmad, Premanand, poet Dalpatram Dahyabhai, Sursinhji Takhtsinji (Kalapi), Zaverchand Meghani contribution in pre-independence era.
Few of the present times novelists and poets like Umakant Joshi, Jyotindra Dave, Kaka Kalelkar Ishwar Petlikar, Pannalal Patel, Harkishan Mehta, Father Valles, Joshep Macwan, Chandrakant Bakshi, to new generation writers like Dr Raeesh Maniar, Varsha Adalja, Kajal Mehta, Kajal Oza Vaidya and so, have very, very rich cultures.
Sharing his literary journey, poet and ghazal writer Raeesh Maniar told IANS, “Language is to be allowed to flow with time, you can’t build dam of grammar, spelling on literature and try to control it, more naturally it flows, the more flourishing it will turn out to be.”
In the non-fiction category, biographies, autobiographies are read a lot, says the sales figures of such books, cited Chintan Sheth, Director of R.R.Sheth books-one of the leading publisher of Gujarati literature.
Citing an example, Sheth said Elon Musk biography’s in Gujarati’s 10 to 12,000 books are sold. The Gujarati version paperbook of Mario Puzo’s ‘Godfather’ did well in the market. Agatha Christies novels like ‘Dead Game’, ‘Death on the Nile’, ‘The body in the Library’ are really well accepted and read by readers.
Another factor leading to increased readership is availability of Gujarati books across the globe. With the change in delivery system, one can place order from Australia and get Gujarati novel, poem book from Gujarat and get delivery in a week or fifteen days.
E-books are also on demand as the new generation loves to read books online, which is made available at affordable rates by many publishers and e-commerce platforms. In coming days and years, Gujaratis will be reading more non-fiction books giving solution to their daily lives, professional and health related issues, believes Sheth.
–IANS<br>har/shb/lrv