Surender Mohan Pathak (SMP):

“46 percent of the people in India speak Hindi. And out of that 46 percent, only one percent read Hindi… Hindi is more popular as a spoken language… And due to Hindi films, the language is popular, including in the South. People who are not very conversant with the language will still go to the films. They will not understand but they will still enjoy the show. So films may make the language popular to speak but not to read. They don’t read. Only spoken [Hindi] is popular... So, a regional writer does not have a huge body of readers."

Interviewer:

Some of your books have been translated to English. How have those been received?

SMP:

“No matter whatever I do, I will still be considered basically a writer of Hindi only. It may be [translated] in French, but I will be considered basically a Hindi writer. They will say ‘that is the writer of the regional language of India known as Hindi.'

Also, good translators are hard to find. So I translate myself… I get them published with great difficulty. Six or seven of my books are there in English and they have had a very good reception. But still, nobody would accept me as a writer of English language.”