When we (I and Larry Collins) researched for Freedom at Midnight, I think we could have written a book on Gandhiji's life, about Pakistan, about Jinnah, about Nehru, all those things. The problem is to write one book and make it as good as possible, with all the information you can put together. And then you write a script. It's like a cinema script. This is the story you want to write.

And each one of us wrote the episode he wanted to write. We were the only writing team in the world writing in two languages. He was writing in English, I was writing in French, and then we translated each other.

The process of translation is very interesting. When I had problems in translating Larry Collins into French, it meant his English was not good enough. When his English was good, there was no problem. It was the same for him. So we corrected each other, we edited each other. In the end you couldn't say who wrote what. Collins was from an Anglo-Saxon culture; I was from a European culture. So we brought both of our backgrounds into the same project. And that's how this book was so successful.

• MANDAKINI GAHLOT: What kind of research went into the writing of The City of Joy?

DOMINIQUE LAPIERRE: What happened was that I'd done Freedom at Midnight, spending months, years in India, and I fell in love with India because of Gandhi, Indian history, all that. With my wife, I wanted to show my gratitude to the Indian people, big maharajas as well as coolies from Calcutta. I wanted to show them my gratitude by doing something that could help them.

... contd.