Reviving the regional language of common man – Divya Prakash Dubey

Divya Prakash Dubey is the author of ‘Terms and Conditions apply’, ‘Masala Chai’, and a former content contributor to an extremely popular radio show ‘Yaadon ka idiot box’.
He has dedicated his work in touching the lives of common man, by portraying their stories, in a common regional language.

There is certain nostalgia in his work, and his desire is achieving timelessness through his work. As he states, characters like ‘Galee ke bhaiyya’, ‘Pandey Uncle’ ‘Mishra Uncle’, and locations like ‘Piya Milan chowk’ or ‘Nana-nani park’, ‘College Canteens’ have existed, but rather inconspicuously playing somewhat impressionable, and perhaps a thankless role in our lives. These places, and people touch common lives, have had a perpetual existence in a north Indian society, and they fascinate Dubey immensely. He likes to write about them, and around them. And he strongly believes that he can justify these settings and characters only if he writes about them in their regional language; which is Hindi in Dubey’s case.

Dubey, a TEDx speaker, is an engineer from College of Engineering Roorke and an MBA grad from SIBM pune, but a writer by profession. He began his writing career, from his undergraduate days. He has an interesting take on the profession of writing. He states, ‘ we take 4 years to learn engineering, yet we often end up being an average engineer. A writer cannot afford to be average, because he/she has a huge social responsibility. Therefore to be a professional writer, you have to work on yourself tirelessly, dedicate yourself to build the writer in you, and this takes time, a lot of time. Writing should be taken as a chore, as a regular work, as a responsibility; its more about your diligence, and perhaps less about your brilliance and creativity!’ He further states ‘ all writers should cultivate the habit of critically reading a book, and not just browsing through it. We should have at-least one book in life that we have read ten times, and every time we re-read it, it should give us a new insight – that is the magic of a book and timelessness quality of good writing. Along with that we should also read bad books to know what differentiates good from bad! ’

Regarding the current trend of micro blogging on social media, Dubey opines that writing on social media fetches instant gratification, but the quality is often jeopardized or compromised. As per him, book writing is the only way of achieving the magical timelessness, which transcends through all periods of human history, and makes any writing a masterpiece. Social media is a good platform to reach out to followers, but a long term in writing career can only be built through dedication, focus and hard work. After completing three books, he believes that writing in itself is a very enjoyable process, and he can never barter that enjoyment with the greed of quick recognition through social media.

Rahi Masoom Raza, for his innovative contributions to Hindi language and Manohar Shyam Joshi, for his realistic narration style, are Dubey’s inspirations. He draws immense inspiration in Hindi writing from these two authors. Dubey strongly believes that a writer can touch core emotions of any reader, if he writes in the mother tongue. Which is why Dubey writes in Hindi. Like he often states ‘Hindi mein to pehli loree suni thhi, English to school mein maar maar kar seekhi thhi’. He also believes that writing in Hindi will give him a higher outreach, especially in North Indian belt.

He has few words of wisdom for budding and aspiring writers. Dubey somewhat finds it unsettling when people come to him and tell him they want to be a writer, because it’s a glorious career. He believes that you should write if you have to voice something, which has been left unsaid, and not because you get attention or admiration; ‘We are used to of dreaming extraordinary, but not used to of struggling extraordinary. Invest yourself wisely, into the pursuit of something you want to make a career in’

Dubey is currently working on his project ‘Sunday waali chitthi’ and adaptation of Hindi feature film based on his upcoming novel. Youthopia wishes him all the best in his pursuit!