Inspired by the vernacular literature

I bought five-six Punjabi books recently. Three of them were by Amrita Pritam. I read them first.

I finished the novel 'Eho hamaara jeevana' by Dalip Kaur Tiwana an hour ago.

It was after a really long time that I am reading Punjabi literature. The experience was delicious. Something written in words that you use naturally is so easy to read! I understood the text automatically, without consciously processing what I read. I felt that those words 'belonged' to me! As indeed they do. With English, the words, the settings, the idioms do seem like good friends but a thin barrier remains. They remain a little foreign.

So, 'the effortless reading experience' was the first point I made a mental note of.

Secondly, I noticed how natural, how plausible the dialogues seemed. Now, that was of course because I picked up good books (though Amrita does get so poetic at times that her prose seems stilted). I found 'Eho Hamaara Jeevana' excellent in this respect. I really admired the authoress' grasp over the rural Punjabi idiom. She has written exactly as a rustic would speak.

In fact, I am writing this post mainly in order to note this point. Authentic dialogue is the soul of a story. A writer need not use metaphors. He need not use heavy-duty words (in fact, he mustn't!). What he needs to do is to present his characters accurately, and to make them speak and act as a real person in that situation would.

Today, I also read a story by Munshi Premchand. Sadgati. There too, I went "Wow!" over how natural his dialogue seemed. I have read some works by Premchand over the years, but all in English.

I've decided to go to Punjab Book Center tomorrow and pick up a few books of Premchand in Hindi and more Punjabi books.

I want my English work, especially the dialogue, to seem as natural as in Hindi or Punjabi. That is a benchmark.