Love Stories in Ol Chiki

Folk tales and history,songs and poetry as well as hefty dictionaries pack the shelves. There are 400 books in the stall,in the Ol Chiki script of Santhalis,and English and Bengali translations. The bestselling writer is Pandit Raghunath Murmu,whose stories probe Santhali culture and rituals,and who is credited with creating the Ol Chiki script. Santhali writer Damayanti Beshra and the up-and-coming Joba Murmu are other hits.

It has not been easy for Manjhi to find a space for a neglected language in the now-crowded world of vernacular literature . “At the Jamshedpur Book Fair in 1996,they were unwilling to have me and said nobody will read such books. When they asked me for a list,I put down names of 200 books. They agreed to give me space but on the condition that I make a minimum sale of Rs 10,000. I ended up making Rs 30,000,” says Manjhi,with a proud glint in his eyes.

Now,he represents nine other tribes such as Kharia,Ho and Munda. He looks disappointingly at his stall which can only hold books of three tribes . “When we come next,we’ll hopefully get a larger space,” he says. Aadim also caters to IAS aspirants. “It’s like giving a weapon to children and youngsters to fight. If they don’t go into administration,who will take care of us?” says Manjhi adding they have a lot of manuscripts waiting to be published. “It is to sustain our language and reach out,” he adds.

For now,he is rolling up his sleeves for the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany in October. “Language is my primary hobby — Santhali is my mother tongue. I have studied in Bengali and Hindi,I had to learn Oriya as it is a padosi bhasha,and nobody can cheat me in Urdu. My aim is not to compete but to take our writings and our to the world,” he concludes.