Bias bared
Vandana Shukla

She writes about the "most shameful secret of our society" in her debut novel and gets away with the coveted Costa First Novel Award 2010 for Witness the Night. Kishwar Desai, nee Ahluwalia, has "fearlessly blown the lid on the problems that simmer under the surface of modern-day India," the judges for The Costa Book Awards said in a statement. The issues she bares in a racy crime novel are based on socially accepted norms in the north of India —female infanticide and foeticide.

Kishwar Desai, journalist, TV anchor, editor and scriptwriter, carries "a few angry bones" under her good-looking pleasant persona. She may have offered fodder to Page 3 glitterati with her much-talked-about marriage to Lord Meghnad Desai in 2004, but settled in London now, Desai still maintains her ties with India through her writings. Guardian has termed her debut novel "thought provoking". In 2007, Darlingji: The True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt, was published by Harper Collins, and she wrote the screenplay on Noor Inayat Khan, a spy for the British during World War II in 2008, which has been optioned by F & ME, a British production house. In 2009, Witness the Night was long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Desai joins a long list of novelists from India like Aravind Adiga, Amitav Ghosh, Jhumpa Lahiri and Arundhati Roy, who bagged international recognition for their debut novels. Witness the Night is also being published in Hindi by the end of this month. Excerpts from an interview:

Actually, the idea of the novel began as a film I wanted to make. But when I sat down to write, I thought perhaps a book should come out first so that I could get an idea if people wanted to engage with real-life problems, even in a novel. The good news is that I have offers from some British companies to turn it into a film. So, perhaps the original plan will fructify!

No, I had thought that women's issues were no longer interesting. But I had always hoped that if I wrote it as a crime novel people would pick it up, and enjoy it just as a good book. I wanted to get the message across but in an entertaining fashion. I had never imagined it would have such a wonderful reception both in India and abroad — or even be noticed, let alone get awards.

I think for the same reason — I wanted to reach out to as many people as possible and I thought that the original title, The Tyranny of Dreams, might sound too "heavy. " So, we changed the title, in fact, just a few days before it was sent off for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Like everything else in the book, it was done very quickly.

I had anchored the Doordarshan show in the mid-1990s — it is so long ago and so much has happened. Then, I was also working for other TV networks on different programmes. I still remember that`A0for a long time I had an all-women production team, including my editors, camerapersons, everyone. Yes, I think that while India lags in terms of giving real equality to women — other countries are also facing their own glass ceilings. Please don’t forget, that like the Dalits in India, and the African community in the West, women have been oppressed for centuries and it will not be possible to get rid of these prejudices in just a few decades. But we can always hope that India will at least catch up with the rest of the world.

No, actually I had never experienced any form of bias while I was growing up or working. I think I was fortunate that I was born into a liberal family, which had no problems with my working or any of the personal choices I made. In fact, right after college I started working as a journalist in Chandigarh — at a time when there were a handful of women journalists! But I did notice other women suffer from these biases and, of course, I constantly came across skewed gender ratios in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and other states, which indicate how carefully women have been weeded out from our society. There are many ways in which you can kill women, at all ages. And India seems to have perfected all of them.

I think that question is a little misleading. The book actually has two protagonists. In fact, the protagonist is a liberal, outspoken feisty, urban empowered woman, Simran Singh, who has been liked by everyone, including the judges. The fact is that we simply do not have unconventional women characters like Simran Singh in our literature. And in all my interactions abroad, Simran has actually got more attention than Durga — the young girl who is accused of committing the crime. So, I think it will be wrong to say that books about victims get attention abroad. In my book, it is Simran who is the central character —and she also reappears in the next book , as this is now being turned into a series.

Yes, I think this is personal in the sense that I have used my own experiences and those of others around me. But this will always happen — or at least will happen with my books — as I can only write about things I know and understand. Of course, I also use my imagination a lot — but it is useful to know a little about what you are writing about as that makes the book more authentic.

I think it is partly to do with the fact that that Indian writers usually write well in English — as we have been taught that language from birth. Partly, it also has to do with the fact that Indians are now part of the mainstream narrative abroad. People are interested in our stories not because we are exotic or unusual but because they can now relate to`A0our stories better.

I suppose a bit of everything. I really don’t know. I just feel I have been extremely fortunate to have great support from everyone involved in the book — my agents, publishers, family, everyone. Most people would have rejected the book because it had no 'magical realism,' a la Rushdie, and nor was it Chick Lit and, in fact, it was rejected by quite a few publishers in the UK, till the present publisher read it and decided to publish it. In India, it was accepted straightaway by HarperCollins and, in fact, it is now being published in Hindi, later this month.

Of course, the award is definitely going to hugely help in pulling in more readers — both in the UK, and worldwide. Amazingly, it has put the book firmly in the international arena. Previous books that received the same award, The Tenderness of Wolves etc, have all done extremely well. Now, I have to quickly write my next book — and it will have to be done much more carefully as people have some expectations from me now! Yes, it will put the issue of female infanticide and`A0foeticide on centrestage.

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