CHENNAI: It might have taken an injury for crime writer Vish Dhamija to come up with his first book Nothing Lasts Forever, but thankfully that wasn’t the case with his second. “I injured my leg way back in 1992 when I was in Delhi. And when I realised that I had nothing to do (being away from work), I let my imagination run wild. But it was only 15 years later that I put pen to paper,” says Dhamija, speaking to this reporter on the sidelines of the launch of his second crime novel Bhendi Bazaar at Starmark, Express Avenue, on Tuesday.
So while his first book materialised almost after 15 years of him coming up with the plot, completing Bhendi Bazaar didn’t take him more than a year. “It took around a year for me to come up with Bhendi Bazaar,” states the dual MBA degree holder, who took up writing as a passion. “Writing, for me, is pure passion. I chose crime because it has the capacity to keep the reader engrossed.”
Bhendi Bazaar, which is a story that’s spread over two consecutive centuries, talks about three girls who end up being sold in Mumbai’s red light area and about serial killings that start happening 25 years later. “Three girls from the Soviet, try to escape to the West via Mumbai in 1982. That’s when the Asian Games are taking place in India and they decide to use Mumbai (then Bombay) as their escaping venue,” says Dhamija adding, “But the girls get sold in Bhendi Bazaar, a red light area. And that’s precisely where the plot revolves,” he lets on.
So, does this mean that one of the three girls is the protagonist ? “No,” he says. “The protagonist is a DCP by the name Rita Ferreira. She is the one who investigates the serial killings that start happening in 2007.”
Dhamija says that the book will keep the reader hooked till the end. “The element of suspense begins as soon as the reader discovers that all those who get murdered are men. Men who are waiting for their turn with escorts. And that’s what will keep the reader glued till the end,” says Dhamija, who has already started working on his next crime novel Deja Karma that deals with the life of a defence lawyer.