Delhi tea seller emerges as award winning novelist

Although he looks like any other ordinary tea seller, however, Laxman Rao is a tea-seller with a difference. He owns a small roadside stall, where his customers come not only for the brew, but also a taste of his words, reports the NDTV.

Rao, 62, is an award-winning author of 12 published books. He writes stories based on real life incidents of his customers and other people around him. He has a Facebook page, his books are available for sale on Amazon and Flipkart, one of which has been translated to English and is available on Kindle.

Rao arrived in Delhi in 1975 at the age of 22 with just Rs.40 he borrowed from his father with a dream to make it big in the Indian capital.

Five years later in 1980, he started selling tea in Vishnu Digambar Marg area of Delhi and soon became popular among office goers and passers-by of the area who would stop for his tea.

However, things were difficult when he wrote his first novel and took it to a publisher

The publisher said "get out, a tea-seller cannot write", he recalled.

His book about a boy called Ramdas won the Indraprastha Sahitya Bharti Award. This inspired Rao to become determined to educate himself and publish his own books.

Following the incident, he has saved every penny he could till he had Rs. 7,000 which he needed to publish his first book. He used to cycle around schools to sell his books to those who like Hindi literature.

Rao cycles to his tea stall every day. He says he doesn't travel by auto- rickshaws as he wants to save money to publish his books. He sells tea till 9:00pm at the stall and then writes till 1:00am every night.

He got his BA degree at the age of 42 and appeared for the exams for Masters' degree this year.

"After the results are published, I'd like to do a PhD in Hindi literature," he said.