The rickshaw-puller swiftly makes his way through a roadteeming with buses, cars and auto-rickshaws in Shadi Khampur in west Delhi anddraws up in front of a pink neon sign which beckons from a distance. It reads“May Day Bookstore” in Hindi and English. Entering the store owned by LeftWordBooks, a left-wing publishing house, you are at once ensconced by shelves ofbooks and a warm glow that emanates from yellow bulbs.
There are books on and by Karl Marx, Che Guevara, AntonioGramsci, Fidel Castro, Rosa Luxemburg and EMS Namboodiripad. Books onliberalism, nationalism and anarchism share space with books such as Women inMalayalam Cinema, Melodrama and the Nation, and Cinema for Beginners. There arealso titles by publishing houses such as Oxford and Sage. Leading left-wingtheatre activist Sudhanva Deshpande, who manages the bookstore and the cafésays, “There was an increasing recognition of the need for alternative spaceswhere people can meet and have meaningful progressive culture and discussions.The cafe is an outcome of the recognition of this need.” Deshpande credits thespace to be a product of the ideas of communist playwright-actor Safdar Hashmi,who wanted to build a left-wing cultural centre in a lower middle class orworking class area of Delhi.
The room adjacent to May Day, which is owned by Jan NatyaManch and is called Studio Safdar, holds movie and documentary screenings,music and theatre performances and book readings. “The bookstore, cafe andStudio Safdar are technically different spaces, but experientially, they areone integrated space. As soon as the screening finishes, we’ll serve tea andcoffee,” Deshpande says.
Doesn’t the conscious projection of the space as left-wingmake it exclusionary? “Why should it beexclusionary? You could agree with us, or have a contrary point of view withinor outside the left. You could think that we are off our rocker, that’s finetoo! But don’t stop us from projecting our view. his place must never become anivory tower or elitist, if it does, then I think we have let Safdar down. Thisis a community space meant for participation by ordinary people, workers andmiddle-class folk,” Deshpande sums up.
