Pratilipi is a platform which brings readers, writers and their stories together. From the next door neighbour reading stories in the afternoon, to the funny college kid downstairs, millions of people around you are using Pratilipi to discover, express and share their stories in the language they love.
Tales have stood the test of time; the art of story-telling is present in every language. In English it comes in many names such as tale, narrative, anecdote, legend, fable, saga; in Hindi, it would be called katha, kahani, dastan; in Tamil it would be called Kadhai and so on, but the fundamental concept being that no matter the language the art of storytelling is eternal.
Centuries ago people would often huddle up around the fire and exchange stories, sing songs, narrate epics. In the 20th Century, in the birthplace of sagas such as Mahabharat, Shakuntala, Panchatantra and many; storytelling was dying, and it was a slow and painful death.
Pratilipi, derived from the Sanskrit word meaning ‘copy’ is a self-publishing website; it is a platform that brings together writers and readers in a virtual community that instigates a dialogue on literature in any language. It is the 21st century’s answer to the age-old tradition of storytelling but now instead of being huddled up near a fire, readers and writers perch with their laptop, desktop or mobile screens.
Pratilipi, forces you to think, it enables you to escape. Be it short-form or long form of content, the means of communication along with the cosmic connect on a very basic humane level and an element of nostalgia with one’s mother-tongue, Pratilipi transcends the boundaries of language, new thoughts, new stories, the elation of being heard and being understood and no matter how simplified the concept is, the fact remains that to be understood is equivalent to a sense of happiness.
In the olden days publishing was a notion with an elitist perspective; Pratilipi envisions to eradicate this snooty reservation on literature and democratize it. Language is an identity and the fundamental mode to express; a concept with which Pratilipi is well versed. A platform’s real value lies in providing mobility and a superior user experience and this one of the foremost missions (vision) of Pratilipi.
Currently, Pratilipi supports 12 languages; Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, English, Urdu, Punjabi and Odia. Founded by Sahradayi Modi, Sankaranaryanan Devarajan, Prashant Gupta, Rahul Ranjan and Ranjeet Pratap Singh, it is the only online platform in India that caters to literature in regional languages.