Will of Steel- Blogadda Post

I’m voting for Laxman Rao’s #WillOfSteel and blogging on BlogAdda to help him/her get felicitated and eventually enabled by JSW.


Here's an intro taken from the site-

LAXMAN RAO

NOMINATED BY VISHAL ZAGDE

Meet Laxman Rao. He sells tea on the roadside in Delhi. He is also an author, having penned 20 novels in Hindi so far. What’s more, Hindi is not even his mother tongue! Laxman originally hailed from Maharashtra and has settled down in Delhi, running a tea stall. His interest in writing manifested in the form of a book in the late 70s when he published his first novel Nayi Duniya Ki Nayi Kahani.


You can also vote for your favourite nominee by clicking here

Why Laxman Rao?

What I liked most about Laxman Rao's story was his love toward his craft. Writing is not the easiest of skills and it cannot be easy for someone to work as a tea-seller while knowing that he is also a master craftsman. I honour the art of writing because I have tried it and I know how difficult it is to put your head to a story and make it come true.

The fact that he is doing it in Hindi is even more heartening. In an era where Hindi novel readership is steadily falling and hope seems bleak, it is people like Laxman Rao who need to be encouraged so that our language has its rightful place in society.

If by voting here, I can bring about change in the life of one such man, I am very sure it is all worth it. Writing as a craft is also much close to my heart. This guy has written 20 novels and it is no mean feat. It is like trying continuously like an ant with a sugar cube, and rolling down the wall and yet, picking oneself up and preparing for the next novel. We might not find his books in a bookstore, we might not find him good enough, he in fact may just be a mediocre novelist but, the tenacity makes me want to salute this guy.

Also, the Indian pride also goes a few notches up when someone indulges selflessly in the art of storytelling because that's what we Indians do. We are the tellers of stories. Long, short, happy, sad, musing, amusing stories. We are filled up to the brim with stories and it is such a happy thought that one such guy is taking it seriously. He deserves much more respect that probably what he is getting. He should at least own a bookstore where they serve tea to the seeking mind. He should own a library. With years of wisdom in him, I wish he were just to sit somewhere comfy and write his next novel instead of selling tea on the streets. Not that selling beverages is beneath him or anything, it is just that he deserves the leisure a mind that is full of stories desires. There is much better use for those rags that he probably uses to clean tea stains. They can be sticky notes on his idea board and we might be looking at an opportunity of helping the creating of something unique, something rare- a timeless novel set in India.
 Instead of Ram, this time, I wish that may the force be with Laxman.