What is it like for women in India?
SB: For several decades they have pursued higher education and careers in medicine, law, finance, and held high political offices. India had a female prime minister long before many of the Western countries put a woman in the role of chief executive. And yet, even high-powered career women in India often lead sheltered personal lives, where the men make the major decisions in the family. BRC: The Hindu religion plays a large role in your story. What is your own religious background, and how do you believe it affected the writing of the novel? SB: I was born and raised in a Hindu Brahmin family. Our small town had only one school that taught all the subjects in English, and that happened to be a parochial school, so my sisters and I had to attend that. But there was never any conflict. In the novel, I have tried to portray some typical Hindu practices without going into too much detail, just enough to hold my readers’ interest. In other words, I wrote what I knew. BRC: You used several
