Vernacular voices

“We had always appreciated good literature. Despite the onslaught of television, the sanctity of the written word is still intact. The habit of reading good literature has declined and something needed to be done about it. While English is a global language, the vernacular languages have their own distinctive importance. Languages help to express the ethnic diversity of man. Marathi literature, after all, has a 700-year history. There are many issues that the vernacular press is able to handle well like the transformation that sugar co-operatives have wrought in rural Maharashtra and its impact on the land,” he believes. With the aim of fostering that legacy, Antarnaad, was born.

The purpose behind the venture is reflected in the range of topics that the magazine has handled. These include the 1857 War of Independence in South India , Musai Singh, a relatively unknown freedom fighter who spent 47 years in jail, longer than any other Indian and controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen on women’s liberation. Each issue also carries with it one translation from another Indian language and one story by a new writer. While Kale admits that there have been hiccups like a shrinking reading public or difficulties in marketing, sales of the magazine have begun to pick up. Antarnaad’s target audience is the intellectual elite and opinion-makers of Maharashtra. Its life-subscribers include Pu La Deshpande, Prabha Atre, Vitthalrao Gadgil.

“Effective writing is that which make for lucid readability, empathetic handling of a relevant or contemporary theme in a style that reflects the basic strength of good literature. It meets a basic need, that of creativity,” believes Kale. He is looking for sponsorship for writing projects on subjects like undertrials languishing in jail for much longer than warranted. Kale’s convictions go back to the times when the family home in Mumbai was a hotbed of debate thanks to his trade-unionist father.

A stint in the political weekly, Himmat and a discovery trip to Europe forged Kale’s thinking. “It would be fair to say that Himmat prepared the ground and that I felt a tremendous sense of mission,” Kale divulges. Drawn by the organisation’s philosophy of being an agent of positive change, Kale soon involved himself with the Moral Re-armament Movement. Kale has since sought to put into practice the dictum of `think globally, act locally’ at the MRA’s headquarters in Panchgani.

Kale also runs a library at the office of Antarnaad in Aundh, a venture which again reiterates the faith he reposes in the written word. “This is more than a venue for exchanging books, it is also a place to exchange views. It has become a meeting point for local people,” he says. For Kale it’s much more than a job, it’s a mission.