Bus conductor Chatur Solanki has written fiction, poems and even a biography

As many as 70 novels in a span of less than three decades, is hardly a sufficient introduction to Solanki who passes off as any other overworked bus conductor in an AMTS bus. His range of writing varies from sex-loaded fictions to poems and fairy tales — and a biography of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in Gujarati.

Amid punching the tickets in his bus, the 51-year-old writer now often looks out of the window searching for posters of latest Gujarati blockbuster Mahiyar Ni Maya. Solanki feels gratified, every time he reads his name in the credit line for story. The success of the film has landed him into the world of stars with offers pouring in for both films and television serials.

Born in a poor family as one of the seven children of a mill worker, Solanki sailed through the days of dearth in his childhood. “I developed a taste for Gujarati literature at the age of 13 and started writing subsequently,” he says.

From breathing Gujarati and Hindi cinema at one point of time to making a debut in the world of pulp fiction, Solanki changed his preferences by the time he wound up his formal education with matriculation in 1968.

“I got married in the same year and was jobless for two years. In 1970, by chance, I got the job of a bus conductor with AMTS. However, my passion for writing continued,” he says.

“Around this time my friend Mukund Dave introduced me to the then leading Gujarati pulp fiction writer Navneet Sevak, who became my main source of inspiration. Then came the big break. A publisher friend, Popatbhai Rajput of International Publications made me the first offer. I was asked to write a book on dacoits of Chambal — the best selling subjects of those times.”

So came Solanki’s first novel Chambal Ni Kasam in 1973. His very first novel evoked a very good response. Subsequently he was asked to write a series. So came sequels Tham le Bandook, Ver Ver Ver, Takkar, Aakhri Daav, Nasihat… 40 novels that sold like hot-cakes on pavements all over Gujarat and even in far off places like Mumbai and Indore.

But Chatur Solanki believes in changing with the times. So from the ravines of Chambal, he zoomed in on the intricacies of urban life. This led him to pen a series of novels that peeped into the closed quarters of a conservative Gujarati society.

And the job of a conductor opened wide the gates of imagination for Solanki who found enough fodder for his fiction in the passengers. “I extracted characters of my novels from daily commuters. I observed them carefully and tried to understand their psyche.”

Writing in Gujarati — that too pulp fiction — is not rewarding. Both monetarily and in terms of recognition. But Solanki has no regrets. “I do not write for awards. I write what people desire. And I ensure that my work does not gather dust, and is fit enough to sell even on road-side sans any marketing.”

“The job of a conductor has continued to enrich my mind with imagination. I will carry on till I retire. And after that, I will devote all my time to writing,” says Solanki. He recently completed a novel in just two months when he lay in bed at home, recuperating from a fractured leg.