Indian Literature in India???

Try as I might, I just can't get hold of any Munshi Premchand books anywhere in Bangalore- I've tried Landmark, Gangarams, Blossom (Premchand yaaru?) , but looks like these bookshops only cater to the yuppie junta (me included). Ask for the latest Booker wonder, or an old Dalrymple, and that's going to be there for sure. Indian writers writing in English are very welcome, but Indian writers writing in their own languages, how passe.

I'm sure if I looked hard enough I can find Premchand's writings translated to English, but that's not the real deal right?

It's been ages since I've read any of his stories and the last time I remember I was the South Indian boy in a Delhi school struggling through sthrilings and pullings, muhavare aur that lok word which I can't remember. Still screw up, and I'm sure my Bhopali inlaws have muffled many a chuckle over my linguistic gaffes in our weekly conference calls.

Anyway, while the rest of the Hindi lessons were painful, reading Premchand was amazing- I really loved his stories set in an India hidden to most city slickers, with the travails of the common man. That's the official line- the real reason probably was that Hindi Literature (Hindi Paper 2) used to be typically the last exam before the two month summer break, and writing a critique of a story was any day better than signing off the last day of school with yet another mediocre performance in Maths.

Ah guess what, even as I'm writing this, I discovered a nice blog site which has Premchand's writings:

http://munshi-premchand.blogspot.com/

Seems pretty comprehensive and I know what my weekend reading is going to comprise of now!