Some one told me that "Pustak" has literary connotations while the word "Kitab" doesn't have it. Is it true? I am from Urdu background where also the word "Kitab" is used and I find it discomforting that the word "Kitab" would only be associated with children, etc and is not used exactly like "Pustak"?
I would agree with this statement. Hindi word "Pustak" has literary connotations while "Kitab" doesn't have it like "Pustak".
We can't wish connotations with words to change or go away, to please us or no matter how uncomfortable it seems personally to us - that is the beauty of living languages. It is true that in Hindi "pushtak" has literary connotations while the word "Kitaab" has an "informal" (at times casual to the extent of childish) connotations. We can understand this through the following example:
We have terms like "पुस्तक समीक्षा" while there is almost no "किताब समीक्षा". If we believed in some people's method of judging popularity of words through Google searches, I have also searched Google just now and found this:
"पुस्तक समीक्षा" gives 111,000 results, while "किताब समीक्षा" gives ONLY 149 results!!!.
It tells the whole story in a way perhaps some of us would understand best.
Searching simply "pustak" Vs "kitaab" won't help to judge how it is used in Hindi because of the simple reason that "kitaab" is an "Arabic" word whose usage would cut across many nations of this world. I think since we are evaluating the literary connotations in Hindi, we should rely on the search of "पुस्तक समीक्षा" Vs "किताब समीक्षा".
The famous Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan writes in his poem मधुशाला:
"कभी न कण-भर खाली होगा लाख पिएँ, दो लाख पिएँ!
पाठकगण हैं पीनेवाले, पुस्तक मेरी मधुशाला।"
In his another poem पथ की पहचान, he starts his poem with:
"पूर्व चलने के बटोही बाट की पहचान कर ले।
पुस्तकों में है नहीं
छापी गई इसकी कहानी
हाल इसका ज्ञात होता
है न औरों की जबानी"
If we are speaking about "literary connotations" in Hindi, in my opinion "pushtak" has it and "kitaab" doesn't have it.
