Kishwar Desai (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Rosha) (born 1 December 1956) is an Indian author and columnist. Her first novel, ''Witness the Night'', won the Costa Book Award in 2010 for Best First Novel and has been translated into over 25 languages. It was also shortlisted for the Author's Club First Novel Award and longlisted for the

Man Asian Literary Prize The Man Asian Literary Prize was an annual literary award between 2007 and 2012, given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year. It is awarded to write ...

."No Girlhoods"
. Outlook India. 5 January 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-28. Her novel ''Origins of Love'', published in June 2012, was critically acclaimed. ''The Sea of Innocence'', published in 2014 in India as well as in the UK and Australia, was widely discussed as it dealt with the issue of gang rape. Desai also has a biography, ''Darlingji: The True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt'', to her credit. She wrote her latest book in 2020, released on 28 December, titled, ''The Longest Kiss''.

Early life and education

Born Kishwar Rosha on 1 December 1956 in

Ambala Ambala () is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border with the Indian state of Punjab (India), Punjab and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

(now

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

) to Padam and Rajini Rosha. She grew up in

Chandigarh Chandigarh is a city and union territory in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. Situated near the foothills of the Shivalik range of Himalayas, it borders Haryana to the east and Punjab in the ...

, where her father was the head of Punjab Police, and graduated from

Lady Shri Ram College Lady Shri Ram College (LSR) is a constituent women's college, affiliated with the University of Delhi. History Established in 1956 in New Delhi by the late Lala Shri Ram in memory of his wife Phoolan Devi (Lady Shri Ram), the college bega ...

in 1977, in Economics (Hons).

Career

She started her career as a print journalist and worked as a political reporter with the ''

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language India, Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the Indian Express Limited, ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnat ...

'' moving on to television and broadcast media after a while, where she worked for over two decades. She worked as anchor, TV producer and head of a TV channel with some of the major Indian television networks. She was also the Vice President at '' Zee Telefilms'' (''

Zee TV ZEE TV also known as Z TV is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 1 October 1992 as the oldest privately owned television channel in India. History ...

''). She anchored ''

Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...

's'' morning show, ''Good Morning Today'', after which she took over as the CEO of Tara Punjabi TV channel, a part of Broadcast Worldwide, which was established by former STAR TV head, Rathikant Basu. Thereafter Desai moved to '' Zee'' and ''

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy. NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...

'', where she worked as a producer. She has written for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' and currently writes columns for ''

The Week ''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...

'' magazine, ''

The Asian Age ''The Asian Age'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper with editions published in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. It also prints an "international edition" in London. It was launched in February 1994. The same publishing company also pro ...

'' and ''

The Tribune ''The Tribune'' or ''Tribune'' is the name of various newspapers: United States Daily California *''Oakland Tribune'' * ''The Tribune'' (San Luis Obispo) * ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' *''San Gabriel Valley Tribune'' Indiana *''Kokomo Tribune' ...

'' newspapers.

Literary career

Her award-winning novel ''Witness the Night'', was the first in the series featuring the feisty Indian middle-aged social worker-cum-crime investigator, Simran Singh. In a small town in the heart of India, a young girl, barely alive, is found in a sprawling house where thirteen people lie dead. The girl is charged with the murders and Simran is now her only hope. The judges of the Costa Award (

Anita Rani Anita Rani Nazran (born 25 October 1977), better known as Anita Rani, is a British radio and television presenter. Early life Rani was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and grew up in Heaton, West Yorkshire, Heaton and Odsal. Her parents were ...

Anneka Rice Anne Lucinda Hartley Rice (born 4 October 1958), known professionally as Anneka Rice, is a British television and radio presenter, journalist and painter. She began her broadcasting career with the BBC World Service and later moved to childr ...

and

Mark Thornton Mark Thornton (born June 7, 1960) is an American economist of the Austrian School. DiLorenzo, Thomas (2011-02-11My Associations with Liars, Bigots, and Murderers '' LewRockwell.com'' He has written on the topic of prohibition of drugs, the econo ...

) said "Kishwar Desai pulls off a remarkable trick, transplanting a country-house murder to modern-day India in a book that's not afraid to tackle serious themes". ''Witness the Night'' was also shortlisted for the Author's Club First Novel Award and longlisted for the 2009

. In 2020, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''s Emma Lee-Potter listed it as one of the 12 best Indian novels, calling it a "stunning debut". In ''Origins of Love'', Desai took a close look at surrogacy and adoption. Simran Singh is asked to examine the case of an abandoned baby at an IVF clinic and what follows is a maze of new age fertility rites, and surrogacy. The book received critical acclaim in UK, Australia and India. In her latest novel, ''The Sea of Innocence'', Simran Singh is trying to find a British girl Liza Kay who has gone missing from the beaches of Goa. It was published in India, UK and Australia and received rave reviews. ''The Sea of Innocence'' had a reflection of the Nirbhaya gang-rape case in December 2012 in Delhi. Desai's third novel in the series is ''The Sea of Innocence''. Desai's novels have been translated into many different languages, including Chinese, Spanish, French, etc. Prior to writing fiction, Desai wrote a probing yet affectionate biography of Nargis and Sunil Dutt, two iconic Indian film stars, in ''Darlingji: The True Love Story of

Nargis Nargis Dutt (born Fatima Rashid, also known as Nirmala Dutt; 1 June 1929 – 3 May 1981) known mononyomusly as Nargis was an Indian actress and politician who worked in Hindi cinema. Regarded as one of the greatest and finest actresses in the ...

and

Sunil Dutt Sunil Dutt (born Balraj Raghunath Dutt; 6 June 1929 – 25 May 2005) was an Indian actor, film producer, director, and politician known for his work in Hindi Cinema. He acted in more than 80 films over a career spanning five decades and was t ...

.'' The book based on interviews with the Dutt family and friends, explored their lives in detail and tells the larger story of the evolution of

Hindi cinema Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

, and of a society and a nation in the throes of change. Desai has also written a play, '' Manto''!, based on the life of the famous Urdu writer,

Saadat Hasan Manto Saadat Hasan Manto (; Punjabi, , , ; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author who was active in British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan. Writing mainly in Urdu, he produc ...

, which won the TAG Omega Award for Best Play in 1999. Desai is now working on taking the Partition Museum forward and on a new book on Indian cinema. Desai also released a book in 2020, called ''The Longest Kiss'' which is the story of Bombay Talkies founder and actress

Devika Rani Devika Rani Chaudhuri (30 March 1908 – 9 March 1994), usually known as Devika Rani, was an Indian actress who worked in Hindi films. Widely acknowledged as the First Lady of Indian cinema, Devika Rani is regarded as one of the greatest ...

Personal life

After her first marriage, she changed her name to Kishwar Ahluwalia and has a son, Gaurav and a daughter, Malika from the marriage. On 20 July 2004, after a divorce, she married economist Meghnad Desai,"Desai unravels economics of Pound: Khushwant Singh"
''The Tribune''. 13 May 2006. a member of the

British House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest extant institutions in the world, its origi ...

. She lives between London, Delhi and Goa. She is a Trustee with the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust, in which she helped to set up the statue of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

at Westminster Square in London. While the government allotted the space, the charity, chaired by Lord Meghnad Desai, had to raise the money for it. The statue was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

and the Finance Minister of India,

Arun Jaitley Arun Jaitley (28 December 1952 – 24 August 2019) was an Indian politician and attorney. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. Jait ...

, in 2015. Later in 2015, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

also paid his respects at the Gandhi Statue on his visit to the UK, accompanied by the members of the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust and Prime Minister Cameron.

Works

* '' The Longest Kiss: The Life and Times of Devika Rani''. Westland, 2020. * ''The Sea of Innocence''. Simon & Schuster Limited, 2013. * ''Origins of Love''. Simon & Schuster Limited, 2013. * ''Witness the Night'', 2009; Simon & Schuster UK, 2012. * ''Darlingji: The True Love Story of

and

''. HarperCollins India, 2007.

References

External links

Kishwar Desai, Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Desai, Kishwar Indian women novelists 1956 births Living people People from Ambala Delhi University alumni English-language writers from India Indian columnists Indian women journalists Indian television executives 20th-century Indian biographers Indian women television presenters Indian television presenters People from Chandigarh Indian women television producers Indian television producers Novelists from Haryana 21st-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian writers 20th-century Indian journalists Indian women non-fiction writers Indian women biographers Indian women columnists 20th-century Indian women writers Women writers from Haryana Spouses of life peers British baronesses Journalists from Haryana