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Kishwar Rosha, Lady Desai | |
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| Born | Kishwar Rosha (1956-12-01)1 December 1956 (age 69) |
| Alma mater | Lady Shri Ram College |
| Occupation | Author |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | www |
Kishwar, Lady Desai (née Rosha; formerlyAhluwalia; born 1 December 1956) is an Indian author and columnist. Her first novel,Witness the Night, won theCosta Book Award in 2010 for Best First Novel and has been translated into over 25 languages. It was also shortlisted for theAuthor's Club First Novel Award and longlisted for theMan Asian Literary Prize.[1][2] Her novelOrigins of Love, published in June 2012, was critically acclaimed.[3][4][5]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.[6]
Born Kishwar Rosha on 1 December 1956 inAmbala,Punjab (nowHaryana) to Padam and Rajini Rosha. She grew up inChandigarh, where her father was the head ofPunjab Police, and graduated fromLady Shri Ram College in 1977, in Economics (Hons).[citation needed]
She started her career as a print journalist and worked as a political reporter with theIndian Express 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 atZee Telefilms (Zee TV).
She anchoredDoordarshan'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 formerSTAR TV head, Rathikant Basu. She has written forThe Guardian.[7]
Her award-winning novelWitness 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 theCosta Award (Anita Rani,Anneka Rice andMark Thornton)[8] 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 2009Man Asian Literary Prize. In 2020,The Independent's Emma Lee-Potter listed it as one of the 12 best Indian novels, calling it a "stunning debut".[9]
InOrigins of Love,[10] 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. Desai's third novel in the series isThe Sea of Innocence.[11]
Prior to writing fiction, Desai wrote a probing yet affectionate biography of Nargis and Sunil Dutt, two iconic Indian film stars, inDarlingji: The True Love Story ofNargis andSunil Dutt. The book based on interviews with the Dutt family and friends, explored their lives in detail and tells the larger story of the evolution ofHindi cinema, 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, which won the TAG Omega Award[12] for Best Play in 1999. She was working on taking the Partition Museum forward and on a new book on Indian cinema. Desai also released a book in 2020, calledThe Longest Kiss which is the story of Bombay Talkies founder and actressDevika Rani.[13][14]
After her first marriage, she changed her name to Kishwar Ahluwalia[15] and has a son, Gaurav and a daughter, Malika from the marriage. On 20 July 2004, after a divorce, she married[16][17] economistMeghnad Desai,[18] a member of theBritish House of Lords. They were together for 21 years, until his death in July 2025.
