India, July 28 -- Where did you find the seeds of inspiration to write Uprising?

Many years ago, I was doing a trip to the Sundarbans, and somebody told me that there was an island brothel. If you take a boat from Mongla, which is the port, into the Sundarbans, you pass it on the way. I thought, what an unlikely and almost mythical place. It must not be real.

But then I looked it up and did some research, and it is indeed a real place. There has been a brothel on that island for more than 50 years. I immediately thought of setting a novel there. But I felt that it would be very difficult to read until I realised that the novel could be not about the condition of the people who were there, but rather their escape. When I realised the nov...