Kishwar Desai (''

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

'' Rosha) (born 1 December 1956) is an Indian author and columnist. Her first novel, ''Witness the Night'', won the

Costa Book Award The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

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 The Authors' Club Best First Novel Award is awarded by the Authors' Club to the most promising first novel of the year, written by a British author and published in the UK during the calendar year preceding the year in which the award is presented. ...

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 writer ...

."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 and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala has two sub-area ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

(now

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

) to Padam and Rajini Rosha. She grew up in

Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...

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

Lady Shri Ram College Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) is a constituent women's college, affiliated with the University of Delhi, and has a legacy in women's education. History Established in 1956 in New Delhi by the late Lala Shri Ram in memory of his wife ...

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 Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' 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 Essel Group, (also known as Zee Group) is an Indian multinational conglomerate holding company and corporate promoter headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The company has had business interests in mass media, infrastructure and pac ...

'' (''

Zee TV Zee TV (stylised as ZEE TV) is a Hindi general entertainment pay television channel in India. It was launched on 2 October 1992, as the first privately owned TV channel in the country. It is owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. Zee TV also ...

''). She anchored ''

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...

'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 Star TV may refer to: * E! (Canadian TV channel) (formerly Star!), a Canadian entertainment news channel * Las Estrellas (Spanish for The Stars), the Mexican television network * Estrella TV (Spanish for Star TV), the American Spanish-language net ...

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. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...

'', where she worked as a producer. Kishwar Desai has written four books. She 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 prod ...

'' and ''

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

'' newspapers.

Literary career

Desai's last novel ''The Sea of Innocence'' was the third in the series, featuring the feisty Indian middle-aged social worker-cum-crime investigator, Simran Singh. Her award-winning novel ''Witness the Night'', which was the first in the Simran Singh series, dealt with female foeticide. 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. Simran is now her only hope as she is charged with the murder of those dead. The judges of the

Costa Award The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

(

Anita Rani Anita Rani Nazran (born 25 October 1977), better known as Anita Rani, is an English radio and television presenter. Early life Rani was born and brought up in Bradford, West Yorkshire to a Hindu father and a Sikh mother. In an episode of ' ...

Anneka Rice Anne Lucinda Hartley Rice (born 4 October 1958), known professionally as Anneka Rice, is a Welsh-born television and radio presenter, broadcaster, journalist and painter. Early life and education Rice was born in Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wales, ...

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 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; 1 June 1929 – 3 May 1981) was an Indian actress and politician who worked in Hindi cinema. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Indian cinema, she made her screen debut in a minor role ...

and

Sunil Dutt Sunil Dutt (born Balraj Dutt; 6 June 1929 — 25 May 2005) was an Indian actor, film producer, director and politician. Dutt was one of the major stars of Hindi cinema in the late 1950s and 1960s and continued to star in many successful film ...

.'' 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, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

, and of a society and a nation in the throes of change. Desai has also written a play, ''

Manto may refer to: People * Mando (singer), Greek singer * Manto Mavrogenous, Greek national heroine * Saadat Hasan Manto, Urdu short story writer known by his pen name Manto * Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (1940–2009), South African politician * Manto ...

''!, based on the life of the famous Urdu writer,

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

, 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 Choudhuri (30 March 1908 – 9 March 1994), usually known as Devika Rani, was an Indian actress who was active in Hindi films during the 1930s and 1940s. Widely acknowledged as the first lady of Indian cinema, Devika Rani ha ...

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 Meghnad Jagdishchandra Desai, Baron Desai (born 10 July 1940) is a India-born naturalised British economist and former Labour politician. He stood unsuccessfully for the position of Lord Speaker in the House of Lords in 2011. He has been aw ...

,"Desai unravels economics of Pound: Khushwant Singh"
''The Tribune''. 13 May 2006. a member of the

British House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in ...

. 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 (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

at Westminster Square in London. While the government allotted the space, the charity, chaired by Lord

, had to raise the money for it. The statue was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

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 serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

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

''. 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 Punjabi people 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 Women biographers Indian women columnists 20th-century Indian women writers Women writers from Haryana Spouses of life peers British baronesses Journalists from Haryana Women television producers