Saudagar stitches trials of tailors, gets Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar

PUNE: Devidas Saudagar won't ring a bell even in Marathi literary circles, but his novel Usvan (Frayed Stitches) about the trials and tribulations of the tailoring community fetched him the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2024 award in Marathi on Saturday.

The outpouring of a writer who dropped out of school after Std VII, took up tailoring and worked as a watchman for Rs 5,000, Saudagar's book rose from the idea of how ready-made clothes have shrunk the need for stitched ones.

"During Covid, there was no work and I started writing full-time. I did a compilation of poems in 2021 and Usvan in 2022. I took it to 10 major publishers but the novel was rejected," Saudagar, among 23 writers from across India selected for the award, told TOI.

Finally, it was Mukta Godbole of Deshmukh and Company who published 500 copies of the novel, Saudagar said. The 33-year-old grew up in poverty in Tuljapur of drought-prone Dharashiv (formerly Osmanabad) district of Maharashtra. With no land of their own, his grandfather and father were farm labourers and lived in a makeshift house.

"After Std VII, I had to drop out of regular school and went to a night school till Std X. By then, my father had started working in a tailoring shop and I helped out in the daytime," Saudagar said.

He studied motor mechanics in a nearby ITI (polytechnic) for two years in 2006 but the economic slowdown of 2008 meant he had no work. "That is when I took to tailoring. I had enrolled in junior college but had no money or time for studies since I was working full time," he said.

Undeterred, Saudagar enrolled in an open university and completed his MA (history) and picked up English-Marathi typing to improve his job prospects. Saudagar's love for writing started in Std VII. "We did not even have a radio in the house but the nearby village library had comics which I read. As I grew up, I started reading Annabhau Sathe's books," he added. By the age of 18, he had started scribbling poems and stories. Around 2014-15, one of his poems was published in a Marathi newspaper with his cellphone number.

Saudagar said: "They encouraged me to write more poetry and compile a collection. But I had no clue about publishing. So, I saved up Rs 8,000, went to Solapur and got the book self-published in 2018. There were 200 copies. I sent some to well-known Marathi writers. Only (Marathi litterateur) Bhalchandra Nemade replied with a two-page letter and a Rs 100 cheque, the price of the book. I have laminated the letter."

He is working on his next novel about joblessness among educated youngsters.


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