Most first-time novelists aspire to write literary fiction, but you wrote a thriller?
I wanted to tell a story. That’s how it came out.
I hear you dashed it out in 15 days?
It took me 40 days, actually. I became obsessed with it and couldn’t get up till it was done.
What made you pick a dark subject like female foeticide?
I had worked in Punjab and heard these stories. It made me angry that no one took it seriously.
Did your book have any impact on the issue?
In the UK, it did. I was called to many book clubs to discuss foeticide and how to stop it.
Was your feisty female character inspired by Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander.
I haven’t read Larsson. Simran is an amalgamation of many women I know—a chain-smoking, whisky-swigging social worker who isn’t afraid to speak her mind.
How many books are you going to write with Simran as the protagonist?
As many as the publishers want. She works very well for me—a woman who’s totally in control of her life and ready to take on the world.
How did the Indian literary circles react to your debut novel?
New authors in India, especially if they aren’t young and gorgeous, do get a certain amount of: “Hey, who does she think she is?” I think the tightly-written novel is still evolving here.
Your husband Lord Meghnad Desai is the celebrity in the family. How has he reacted to your winning the prize?
He’s very proud of me. Don’t forget Meghnad is a feminist and that I wasn’t a non-entity before I married him.
What’re you wearing for the prize ceremony?
A shocking pink sari in clingy georgette with a golden corset. I want to have fun!
Aren’t you afraid that women in sexy clothes aren’t taken seriously as writers?
It’s time Indians stop thinking that if writers dress glamorously, their books aren’t any good.
