The girl in the video did not look older than sixteen, a pale flame flickering amongst the four dark-skinned boys… the lens moves closer to the bed hovering over the girl, scanning up her pale legs, getting closer to the fabric of her skirt, when there is a sudden flash of bare thighs…the screen goes black again,” begins Kishwar Desai, Costa Award-winning author, as she reads a first few lines of her recently launched book, The Sea of Innocence.
A third in the Simran Singh series, Desai’s book takes the protagonist Simran Singh, the social worker-cum-crime investigator who, in a desperate attempt to break from her busy schedule, goes to the unspoilt idyll of Goa. “She receives a disquieting video featuring a young girl being attacked by a group of men and that propels her to act and uncover the truth. But, she soon gets embroiled in the dirty secrets of the hinterland,” says Desai.
Penning her first two books Witness the Night and Origins of Love—in the Simran Singh series—on social issues such as female foeticide, infanticide and renting of wombs in India, Desai says writing about sexual violence against women was a natural progression for her. “I started thinking about this book about three years ago. As you know, this trilogy that I have worked on basically deals with gender and status of women in India today and I was very concerned with what was happening. So I had a responsibility in a way to talk about the increasing sexual violence everybody in this country is witnessing for a long time,” she says. Written and completed last year, Desai says she conducted intensive research to pen The Sea of Innocence.
“I wanted to see the pattern of these rape cases and the chances of them being addressed properly. I found that justice was not being delivered and the numbers of convictions were abysmal. And this was before the Nirbhaya incident. Most of the perpetrators go free and the victim is the one who is victimised even further. This has been bothering me and I did a lot of research, especially because this was based in Goa and I had to talk to a lot of people in the city, and of course the most obvious case was that of Scarlet Keeling’s which also received huge publicity,” she says. While on her research, Desai found the Keeling case rather intriguing for the simple reason that despite the international pressure, nothing was properly investigated. “This case has formed the basis of my story in a way, but mostly it is about the betrayal of those who we trust the most,” says Desai.
Talking about the status of women in the country, Desai says that professional urban women can start a revolution of true ‘emancipation’ of women in the country, but even that needs more understanding. “What worries me most is what goes on within the families. On the surface we all seem to be well settled, but if you visit their homes, you might find a completely different situation. You might find the women is actually docile at home or she is being forced to take certain positions, and certain things are being done to her behind closed doors which we, you and I, will never know. We need to talk about that more, we need to talk about relationships and sexual violence which goes on within families. So I think the perception is often not the reality,” she says.
As a mother and a wife herself, the 57-year-old Desai has tried to bring out that trait in her central character. “I chose her specifically because I do not see too many women like her. Usually we do not have an independent, liberated woman who does not mind taking risks. If you find a woman like her she will always be dependent on a guy, but I wanted a completely liberated woman. It was important for me because I wanted an iconic figure, not a superhero. I wanted something in contemporary India to represent Shakti, the real woman inside us all... strong, brave and courageous. Simran represents all of that and it is very important that she be that. A man would never have been able to do what she has done, because she combines sympathy and empathy which a man cannot,” she says.
With three more books in her kitty, Desai has her hands full at the moment. “I am currently penning my next in the Simran Singh series and then there is a book on Indian cinema which I am really keen to write. And then, the third book is a romantic novel about a middle-aged woman falling in love. I am really looking forward to writing that,” says Desai.