Crime writer Surender Mohan Pathak to pen autobiography

Surender Mohan Pathak, the ‘badshah’ of crime writing in India, is releasing an autobiography this January. The publishing rights have been acquired by the publisher Westland. The memoir will be in Hindi but would be simultaneously released in English.Surender Mohan Pathak, who has written close to 300 Hindi novels, began his writing career in the early 1960s.Pathak has nearly 300 Hindi novels to his name. His writing career, alongside his full-time job with Indian Telephone Industries of Delhi, began in the early 1960s, with his Hindi translations of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels.The 77-year-old author said writing an autobiographical account of his life was a matter of great pleasure. “It is unprecedented and absolutely memorable for a mystery writer like myself,” Pathak says.His first short story, Sattavan Saal Purana Admi (The Man who Existed 57 Years Ago) was published in Manohar Kahaniyaan, an popular magazine of its time. His first novel, Puraane Gunaah Naye Gunahgaar (Old Sins, New Sinners) was published in another widely read magazine, Neelam Jaasoos, in 1963.After this, Pathak began publishing a series of novels with investigative journalist Sunil Chakravarty as its protagonist; Sunil Series ran into 100 books. Another popular hero created by Pathak for his second series, Sudhir Series, is private detective Sudhir Kohli. Jeet Series features a petty thief who has taken to crime driven by a heartbreak.However, Pathak’s most loved novels come from the Vimal Series whose hero Sardaar Surendra Singh Sohal is a gangster with a conscience.Minakshi Thakur, publisher of the Indian Language Publishing Programme, said the acquisition was a “very special gift” for Pathak’s huge fan base. “He is a natural storyteller and I’m sure this autobiography will be as thrilling as his novels,” said Thakur.Pathak’s novel Colaba Conspiracy was voted the most popular book on Amazon.in in 2014.