Chennai-based Meera Ravishankar experienced the translation industry in its rawest form when she started out almost 10 years ago. The bilingual translator remembers how she did not receive proper recognition for books then, some of which were by famous Indian authors. “In 2012, the credit wasn’t even there on Page 1 and used to be in the in-print details. When I translated Chetan Bhagat’s `2 States`, my first Indian fiction into Tamil, they didn’t even get my name right and tucked it in somewhere. So, I had to practically show people that it was my work,” she laughs. 

A few years later, it was almost poetic when the translator, who has rendered almost all of Bhagat`s past works into Tamil, finally met the author during a book release in Chennai. “I had translated his `Girl in Room 105` and its release was probably the first time he knew I existed,” states Ravishankar.