A Time to Kill

In the late 1990s,a young girl in Kolkata had been accused of murdering her entire family. She was arrested and jailed but I began wondering about the circumstances behind the murders.

In the late 1990s,a young girl in Kolkata had been accused of murdering her entire family. She was arrested and jailed but I began wondering about the circumstances behind the murders. Could it be she was a victim? I began writing a manuscript based on it, says Kishwar Desai,sitting in her spacious,antique-filled living room in Safdarjung Enclave. Initially planned as a film,Desai had began visualising the story,but soon she had 10,000 words and the book was writing itself.

Witness the Night (Harper Collins,Rs 225) unravels the events that took place before 14-year-old Durga is accused of murdering 13 members of her family. Set in Jullundur,Desais first novel deals with the dark underbelly of female foeticide that takes place even in prosperous homes. Punjab is home to Desai,she began her career as a journalist in Chandigarh,her father was in the police force.

Anger is essential to the book: Witness the Night begins with the protagonist Durgas diary entries,describing the aftermath of the murders. Durga is writing an account for Simran Singh,a Delhi-based chain-smoking,whiskey drinking social worker who believes in her innocence and must unravel the events before the murders to get to the truth. In recent interviews,Alexander McCall Smith and Ian Rankin both spoke about how a lot of social issues are dealt with through crime fiction. With this book,Ive accidentally become a crime writer, says Desai,whose character Simran Singh will appear in another book as well.

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While readers will welcome the creation of a female detective of sorts,Desai asserts that the crime will not take away from the larger purpose of the narrative. I wanted to make the reader aware of the sheer horror of what happens to women in India, says Desai,who wrote the first draft in 2008.

Currently,she is working on two more projects. While one of them features Simran Singh,the other is a non-fiction book on Himanshu Rai,one of the pioneers of Indian cinema and his wife,Devika Rani,one of the first actresses on the Indian screen.

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A Time to Kill

In the late 1990s,a young girl in Kolkata had been accused of murdering her entire family. She was arrested and jailed but I began wondering about the circumstances behind the murders.

In the late 1990s,a young girl in Kolkata had been accused of murdering her entire family. She was arrested and jailed but I began wondering about the circumstances behind the murders.