Interview: Bikram Sharma - “For me, writing is very much all about rewriting”

I did not have a specific genre in mind. Over subsequent drafts what really steered the direction of the story wasn’t so much genre conventions as it was the characters and their internal worlds becoming better realized. Before I started writing my book, I realised something obvious – I should write a story that I would want to read. The story unfolds over a few days, and in that short period I wanted to emphasise Jyoti’s struggle to find time for herself while handling her new and daunting responsibilities. As I free-wrote the first draft of my book and imagined Varun walking through the colony, that idea returned to me and I could not resist writing a scene where he has an extra shadow – one that does not belong to him.