He is called the Agatha Christie of India. He is considered to be No 1 when it comes to writing murder mysteries. It is because of him that crime thriller books in Hindi as a genre has touched new heights. Yet very few have heard of Surender Mohan Pathak. SHAlINI SAKSENA caught up with this veteran author who recounts his journey as a thriller writer. He tells you that Hindi writers are a dying breed
We all remember the scene from the movie Angoor in which Sanjeev Kumar is half sitting on a berth in a train and reading a Hindi crime novel. Ek goli idhar se niklee... dhain. Ek goli udhar se nikli... dhain and Sanjeev Kumar dodging the bullets as if they were actually coming out of the pages of the book. So engrossed was he that he almost jumps out of his skin when his servant, played by Deven Verma, touches him. That is what crime novels are all about — that the plot and the characters are able to pull the reader into their world. There are very few writers in the world who have the ability to create a storyline that is so absorbing that one forgets one’s surroundings. However, India’s very own Agatha Christie — Surender Mohan Pathak — has been able to do this and enthrall his readers for over 50 years.
As you walk into his home, and into his writer’s den, in Noida, the man gets up from his leather upholstered chair and greets you. The room catches one’s attention with rows and rows of books in Hindi and some in English. One needs to read what others are writing as well is his explanation. The laptop sitting pretty on his large writing desk is quickly put away. With the table cleared, he offers you tea and points to a booklet that was recently sent by a fan. The spiral bound titled Pathaknama has the covers of some of Pathak’s best works over the years. He then tells you that age has finally caught up with him. His hearing is not as good as it used to be so he shuns large gatherings and that the only person in the house who reads his books is his daughter and that too sometimes. His grandchildren, he says, are too young to read his books but they do know that their grandfather is someone very famous. He also tells you that he has diabetes and has an eye problem since childhood. One wonders how does a man who has eye problem take to writingIJ
Writing to this 75-year-old king of crime novels began only because he wanted to supplement his income. Coming from a rather mediocre background, Pathak’s family came to India during the Partition from lahore in 1947 and settled in Jallandhar. But then his father decided to shift base to Delhi in 1948. The family had to struggle in order to eke out a living and right from childhood there was lot of expectations from Pathak, the only son among three sisters. The fact that he was not very good in studies was a constant worry for his father who wanted his son to get a professional degree from a reputed college and get a good job. However, fate had other things in store for him. Completing his degree in Science from DAV college and Masters from MMH College in Ghaziabad, Pathak went on to work full-time with the Indian Telephone Industries in the later 50s. This job also came to him only after the candidate who was chosen declined the offer.
“After doing my MA, I came back to Delhi and the job hunt began. The family income was tight and I had three sisters of marriageable age. I could not have been choosy even if I had wanted to be. I was told that the Indian Telephone Industries was looking for people. I went for the interview and was shortlisted. But then someone else got the job. I was dejected. Then the person who was offered the job turned it down, so I was next in line with the necessary qualifications. My work of course, was that of a mechanic. Whenever there was a call that a particular phone was not working, I would have to make site visits, get down on my knees and locate the problem. My salary was Rs190, a huge amount then. But the entire amount was taken away from me on day one. I didn’t even have money for bus fare. Nor did my father ask me if I needed money for any personal expenses. This is when I turned to writing,” Pathak recounts.
A keen reader as a child, Pathak would spend hours reading murder mysteries. At that time, there was no other source of entertainment and books were his only companion. He would often borrow these books from the library with the money pooled among friends. Each week four books would be read. Even then, Pathak would sometimes feel that if given an opportunity he too could write something on similar lines. “There were popular detective books by writers like Om Prakash Sharma, Ibn-e-Safi and Ved Prakash Kamboj, Agatha Christie and many others whose books I read with fascination. When you read so much, you overflow. It’s this overflow that makes me write today,” Pathak says.
His first mini-novel was Purane Gunaah Naye Gunahgar for which he was paid Rs60 plus another Rs20 for having given the title. The well-paced mini-novel, with approximately 100 pages, whodunit-thriller with plenty of humour that fits with the storyline was well-received. The protagonist of the novel, Sunil, smart yet vulnerable gave birth to the Sunil series — all of 121 books as of April 2014 and the count continues. However, his first short story, 57 Saal Purana Aadmi, was published by Manohar Kahaniya in 1959.
But the actual writing began much before; in the form of short stories and magazine contributions. A short story — Sattavan Saal Puraana Aadmi — was his first published work in a Hindi magazine, Manohar Kahaniyaan. At that time, the only thought was to earn a few extra rupees so that he could pay for small expenses. However, it was not easy going. At that time, there were around 50-60 Hindi publishing houses and just as many Hindi writers. All of them who were very popular. Pathak was way down, he had just started to write and that too also not full-time. But he never gave up on what he considered to be a means through which he could earn extra, around Rs30 or Rs40 a month. Through trial and error, he slowly learnt the tricks of the trade, how to write a crime-thriller and how to be different from others of his time and make a place for himself.
“Pick up any murder mystery and one will find a few things which are common. First, a murder has been committed and that too in the first 30 pages. This is to keep the reader interested. If the murder doesn’t take place soon, the book will be rubbished and put aside. Second, the victim, what kind of a person he was. Third, a list of suspects. Four, the investigator and finally the whodunit and why. What makes the difference is how one weaves the story keeping in mind these aspects and gives shape to the characters and how well they are able to connect with the reader,” Pathak explains.
The next 17 years were spent working from 10 am to 5 pm and the weekends were spent writing. It was in 1980 that Pathak realised that his novels were being read by many and that he too was recognised as a good writer. It was then that he started to take his writing more seriously and he decided to bring in something new to his style and this paved way to Vimal series whose hero is a Sikh who has been compelled by circumstances to become a criminal. He is a gangster with a conscience and takes the law in his hands only to eliminate the hard-core criminals and help the needy and the innocent. It was this that propelled Pathak to a star writer of Hindi crime novels.
Interestingly, Pathak hates to be labeled as a crime writer. Even though he is the man who has written over 250 crime novels and in the process coined a few words that one hears so often especially in Bollywood like D Company. A term that is used in association with the gangsters or the underworld of Mumbai. Also very few would know that the term investigative journalist was first used by Pathak back in 1963 in one of his short stories.
Probably the only other thing that he hates more is how the media blames his books for some of the crimes that have been committed in real life. “It is not correct to say that all crimes can find a link to a book. Books are a reflection of what is happening in the society. When I had started writing, the newspaper was of hardly four pages. News on crime, unless it shook the entire country never made it to the pages. Today, the newspaper has more than 25 pages. Every theft, murder, rape, robbery is reported. It is not books, but the endless want for material things that is making people take to crime,” Pathak tells you.
But it is this news that he reads which becomes a source of his inspiration. Sometimes it is the murder itself — how it has been committed. Sometimes the inspiration is drawn once the crime has been solved and the reason comes to light. Sometimes, it is just the situation that makes for a novel. Sometimes the novel centres around the character. like an artist sees art in everything, Pathak too sees a novel in everything that comes his way.
Despite being so popular, Pathak still feels that Hindi writers have yet to to get their due. “I have been writing for over five decades but I have never been given a platform where I can voice my opinion. Yes, people call me to various literature festivals but I have never spoken about the Hindi crime writing as a genre. Until recently, at a crime literature festival organised in Delhi, I was given that honour. Some of the so called popular authors sell themselves rather than the book itself. The publishing houses packages these writers as a brand and sells their work. They create a hype.
Something that a Hindi writer can’t afford to do and therefore sticks to the ageold tried and tested way to sell his books — print 1,000 copies which are then picked up by various libraries. The writer get his money and the publisher too makes money. With only four good Hindi publishing houses left, Hindi writers are a dying breed,” Pathak says adding that works of authors like Chetan Bhagat are read because people don’t want to give the impression that they are not well-read. “Most the books of such authors sells because it is fashionable to say that they read the latest work of a particular author. Their books sell because it is hep to buy one. It is another matter that they will not ever read a single line but at least they can say that they have bought it. One will not find a Chetan Bhagat in a public library. They have rules and one of them is that is has to be in hardcover, these books are in paperback. But one will find the latest book by a Hindi author,” the author tells you.
Definitely, it will be difficult to find another writer in the world who even today writes in long hand. Even though he has got used to the laptop and other modern-day gadgets, when it comes to writing, this prolific writer uses paper and pen to write his novels even today. There are pages and pages of hand-written novels that sometimes require more than two large envelopes to be put into before being sent to the publisher. It all begins with jotting down the idea, the characters, the situation and the crime. Notes are made and a rough storyline is written before the final story starts to take shape. It takes him 12 to 14 hours everyday of writing before he can give the completed novel to the publisher within the stipulated time frame of six months.
“To write a novel with 400-plus pages requires work. In my books, I am not the hero, it is the story and the characters who are the real heroes. I constantly need to upgrade my work and better it. Even today, I can’t slip up. When I hear writers say that they take three years to write, I feel sad. It takes dedication and hard work to come up with a winner each time. Something that I hope I continue to do so. I only want one thing, I have reached the pinnacle as an author. I hope that I remain here. I don’t want to die in oblivion,” Pathak says who is at present writing Crystal lodge due to be out in August this year.