At 86, Hindi author Vinod Kumar Shukla is older than new India. The experience of having lived through innumerable political and social upheavals is visible in his stories, making his work a celebration and expression of what it means to be an Indian from the Hindi belt. And yet, fame has mostly eluded the Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer behind the masterpieces, Naukar ki Kameez and Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi.

Last week, Raipur-based Shukla was awarded the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, bringing much deserved attention to his writings in Hindi, a language that has continued to draw a lot of political attention—with recent demands to make it the national language of the country—but which continues to be ignored in the literary sphere.