AK Kareem is a lawyer and an author. He is part of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association and was an eyewitness to the communal violence in Coimbatore in 1997 and 1998. He published Thaalidappatta kathavugal which literally translates to Bolted Door in December 2016 and the stories are accounts of people who suffered during the violence in 1997 and 1998. Outlook met him in Coimbatore to talk about the riots and his experience. Coimbatore has since then become a gateway to the south for BJP and this election it will be very interesting to see how things playout for this constituency.