India, Oct. 11 -- You first established yourself as a translator from Malayalam to English. Please tell us about the books you have translated.

The first book I translated was Kocharethi by Narayan, which won the Crossword Book Award in the Indian language translation category in 2011. The others include Susanna's Granthapura by Ajai P Mangattu, and Aliya by Sethu. Another book, Ayyankali: A Biography by MR. Renukumar, will be published next year.

What are the skills needed to be a good translator?

The basic tenet of translation is that you must read and read till you understand the text at its subtextual level with all the unsaid nuances.

As for language and style, it varies from text to text. Style and sentence structure are very im...