The acclaimed Kannada poet, lyricist and writer Jayant Kaikini has just won a massive prize for his collection of short stories ‘No Presents Please‘, translated into English by Tejaswini Niranjana.

In an interview in The Telegraph, Calcutta, Kaikini speaks on his art and craft:

What would be your message for writers writing in regional languages?

I don’t like prescriptive messages. As a Kannada writer I feel I am blessed to be writing in a language in which epics were written much before the English language was born. And we have over hundreds of sub-dialects in Kannada. Each dialect has its own inherent flow of experiential wisdom. Language is a mode of thought. It is the sixth sensory organ evolved by man. Like a car battery gets recharged while on the run, we get recharged only when we write in our language.

Read the full interview: The good fortune of writing in the mother tongue