The newspaper stand was a punctum of excitement ahead of Diwali for Mukund Kule. Together with his little friends, Kule would crowd around Girgaon’s neighbourhood magazinewallah to pick up copies of special festive editions of periodicals, known locally as the Diwali ank. The journalist-writer calls the 1980s a high point in the popularity of these editions, when picky and loyal Marathi readers would look forward to the robust special read.

The Diwali ank was published in 1909 and called Manoranjan. It was packed with sections, including one for short stories, another for one-act plays, a few pages were dedicated to poetry, and so on. It was an experiment that piqued the Marathi reader’s curiosity. “The next year, there were a lot more anks, and the story continues to this day. Maharashtra sees anywhere between 300 to 400 Diwali editions every year,” says Kule.