The Talk
Avirook Sen has written a best-selling book, Aarushi, based on his investigations into the Aarushi Talwar murder case. His book records and narrates the murder mystery in great and engaging detail. While doing so, it uncovers the underbelly of the country’s pathetic investigative and prosecuting systems.
This story goes well beyond just a murder investigation/trial. A lot of the stuff that happens during the criminal justice process are abstractions for most of us. Likewise, for how media plays a story, and how we middle class Indians receive it. The book is about how this system really works on a daily basis.
In the introduction, Sen writes: ‘When the astronaut Rakesh Sharma went to space in the early 1980s, the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, asked him what India looked like from up there. Rakesh Sharma’s response was memorable: Saare jahan se achha (better than all the world). This book is about what it looks like from the ground.’