Ever heard of a weekly called Deen Dalit’? Odds are invariably against it with its existence now becoming 21-year-old story. But it seems one Gauri Shankar Razak is scripting a history in journalism with his zest for news dissemination and all zing and zeal of a reporter. He is a hawker as well as the editor-cum-proprietor of the same, depending on a roadside laundry for sustaining his journalistic pursuit.
No kidding. Duly registered by the office of registrar of newspapers for India, Deen Dalit is probably the country’s isolated weekly available in hand written form!
Proudly displaying his manuscript, Gauri Shankar Razak (now in his early 60s) says, “I am doing this for a social cause not for business. In fact, life is not permanent. Somehow it will go on. But at the end, it is not how you lived it but what you did shall matter. And I believe that Deen Dalit has given a voice to the people standing at the lower echelon on the society, wherein reports about crime, corruption and exploitations against them at mofussil level have found prominence. I don’t know how long this can continue, but I feel it’s a divine force that is guiding me. My pursuit will stop only if the divine force deserts me.
”What prompted him to bring out weekly in manuscript? Gauri Shankar says, “It’s because of monetary reasons. I wanted to bring the bitter truths of the society to the fore but I had my own financial limitations. But then I could not afford to ask donation for my endeavour.”
Going down memory lane, Razak further said, “over two decades back, I had been to a officer’s residence on Sunday and to my utter surprise, I found a peon being pressed into  doing menial work at the officer’s residence. This was an eye-opener for me and later I found newspaper as an effective tool to expose such type of exploitation rampant at mofussil level but going unnoticed. Since I could not afford the printing cost, I resolved to bring out a weekly in hand written form. Efforts bore fruits and ‘Deen Dalit’ came into being on October 2, 1986, much to my satisfaction.”As things stand today – a simple matriculate,  Razak sets out from his home on bicycle carrying loads of clothes each morning for laundering in his hometown Dumka (in Jharkhand). “But he always keeps his eye and ear open. He never shrinks away from his responsibility of a patrakar (journalist). He writes and edits his weekly himself and pushes it in the market for sale after getting some 100 xerox copies of the same.
Sometimes people buy it on their own, sometimes they have to be persuaded. But in one way to ensure it reaches down to the grassroot, he invariably pastes each issue on walls of Dumka and adjoining villages,” says Dushyant Kumar, a Dumka-based journalist. Razak’s dedication can be discerned from the fact that he has already edited as many as 610 (by the time of filing this report) handwritten issues of Deen Dalit in past 21 years. Though it is a weekly, Razak admits that edition of his manuscript becomes irregular at times owing to financial crunches.
“In fact, each issue of Deen Dalit exacts a minimum Rs 200. But a meagre sum like this too becomes difficult as the weekly draws its sustenance purely on the earning from my laundry. I don’t need any advertisement or monetary help for my manuscript from any quarter,” boasts Razak whose wife and four sons have been extremely supportive. Curiously, Razak religiously sends his weekly to the Prime Minister and President of India and has earned accolades from former President K R Narayanan for his unique endeavour.