It was 12.30 in the afternoon, a little late, for Sanjana Tiwari to set up her small roadside shop for Hindi books. "I leave home around 9.30 am to buy books. So, I usually reach here by 11 am," she says with a smile before going back to setting up her shop.
The shop is located outside Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts and is a place of much activity – a spot where people talk about literature, the performing arts, politics, and everything in between. People from all walks of life visit her shop, earning her the moniker of "SRC Aunty".
“A few weeks ago, Actor Manav Kaul came here. He was excited after seeing his books in my shop. Like him, many actors and writers visit my shop. That is my earning," she says, adding, “This place is my home. I can't imagine my life without this shop. See how much love these students give to me. I am living on the love of these Drama students."
Sanjana Tiwari was born and brought up in Bihar. When she was in Class 10, she was married off, but she never gave up her passion to read. She completed her graduation after marriage and is now planning to pursue her Master's degree. “Women have no permanent home. I was married at an early age, but reading was my passion. I can't live without reading. I started this shop so that I can read. Now it's been more than 25 years.”
Tiwari knows every author's work in her collection. “I read every new book. I also recommend books, if anyone asks me," she says. She believes that a good guide makes a reader out of a young student. “It depends upon the guide because youngsters don’t know what to read. If out of fascination, they go to the shop, they would buy some random books that they wouldn’t even read.”
She opines that reading is a good habit and it should be picked at an early stage of life. "If students are told interesting things about a writer, they would get excited to read. Otherwise, it will bore them," she feels.
Tiwari’s husband, Radheshyam Tiwari is also a Hindi writer. But Sanjana never lets his shadow eclipse her identity. “My life is this shop, and I earned it, it is my capital. I haven’t earned much money in life, but what I have earned will stay with me forever. A lot of writers know my husband; they also know me, but not as his wife but as Sanjana Tiwari.”
Tiwari remembers renowned Hindi poet, Manglesh Dabral, who died in December 2020. “Manglesh ji’s death was a personal loss for me. He respected me a lot. Whenever someone asked him for a bookstore, he would say: buy from Sanjana, she sits in Mandi House.”
Sanjana also runs a small publication under her name, Sanjana Publications which prints the works of emerging writers. But she has an unfulfilled wish. “If Manglesh Dabral were alive, I would have published his book,” she says.
Sanjana believes that people must read the literature of their mother tongue. “Your mother tongue is like your own mother. If you are Tamil, read Tamil literature, if you are Bengali, read Bengali literature. Don’t go after English only. You won’t get a taste of your region," she says.
“People don’t understand the value of literature. People should read books like Vaishali ki Nagarvadhu, Maila Anchal, Tamas, Joothan. They give a better perspective on what is happening around us. You cannot find work like Maila Anchal in English, which is an anchalik (regional) novel,” she says.
Sanjana also keeps a track of every news story about Hindi literature. She shares her thoughts about Hindi author Mannu Bhandari, and her writer husband late Rajendra Yadav. “When Mannu ji died last year, people started talking about her life and her strained relationship with her husband. If one really wants to understand what she went through, one must read her autobiography, Ek kahani Yah Bhi," she says.
Sanjana believes that neither Bhandari nor Yadav hides anything, still, people talk about their life and speculate on it. This should not happen. “Rajendra ji wrote a lot about his life in his publication, Hans. Mannu ji too was vocal about a lot of things. After their death, we are discussing who was wrong and who was not, and whose character is questionable. We should not do this, they were great writers. And we must remember them through their work," she says.
Sanjana thinks this world should run on love. It is nothing without love and care. She recites a poem:
Ajanma hota hai Prem (love doesn’t take birth)
Pet me pal rahe bacche ke sath
Prem bhi pal rha hota hai
Magar vah bacche ki tarah janm nahi leta
Prem ajanma hota hai
Agar vah janm lega to uska ant bhi nishchit hai
(Like a child in the womb, love also grows
But it doesn’t take birth
Love remains without birth
If it would take birth, its end is also certain)
