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But for a parent of a special child the fear that haunts is, “the normal area of anxiety is the future. As long as we are alive our kids will be all right but what after that? With the family structure changing there is no relative who will take care.

And it is just not a question of getting them housed somewhere. There is a need to organise them. In England it is very easy but in India there is no such facility yet. The funny thing is that Rohini prefers life in India. It gets a bit soulless there. The support network is missing. What makes the difference here is the family.”

And then coming to her mother who smiles modestly at her daughter’s achievements Jaishree says, “My mother used to be a teacher in our school in Delhi but she never taught us.” Coming from an illustrious literary background, being the grand niece of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, Jaishree recalls, “As a child I was fascinated by his presence in our house . The entire atmosphere used to change when he came. Conversation would be at another level, not the casual chit-chat. As a child I used to think that it was a nice job to be a writer, but I don’t think I have his talent…not yet. Give me another 15 years hopefully. I don’t write literary books but straight forward narratives.”

But then whose creative gene does she possess? “I think my father was in the wrong job, in the Air Force. He liked reading, poetry, art movies and would be at the India International Centre. He used to be energised when ammavan (Thakazhi) would visit us. But my chacha, uncle, N. Madhavan Nair writes scientific books and journals. I think I have the writer’s gene from him. He is a scientist. His output is more prolific than mine.”

With three wonderful human interest novels that touch a chord in the reader has she come of age as a writer? “With this book, ‘Rani’ (her latest book on the life of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi), I feel more able to say that I am a writer. Four books is not a bad track record.” And she’s right there with Arundhati Roy and Anita Nair to name a few.

“No, no I don’t write literary novels. My place is much more mass market, a publishing jargon, for the fact that my books sell in large numbers. I don’t write something very complex.” But then isn’t love, loss, marriage, the entire gamut of relationships complex, something that her stories deal with? “Yes, love, loss are the grand themes. Loss bigger than love in ‘Rani’. It is a sort of an unspoken love story. Lakshmibai lost her baby, her husband, her kingdom by the age of 24. She lost her inheritance and eventually her life at age 29.”

But why Lakshmibai as a subject and a turn towards the historical novel? “I threw a challenge to myself and among the historical figures she was the most obvious. In fact because of that I set her aside but she kept returning. Do you know she did everything in her power to not go to war? Her sensibilities were modern and her nature pacifist,” she says trying to dispel the common notion that Lakshmibai was ever ready for a fight. And championing woman issues is she a feminist? “Though I am not a feminist there has been a quiet sort of feminism. And women have many more rights than they generally get.”

Jaishree’s husband Ashutosh Misra, who belongs to Lucknow, is a C. A. and they live in London. She works as a film classifier in the Board of Film Certification. Her job entails her to view a number of films in different languages. And she has begun to enjoy Bollywood films. But there’s an aspect that weakens the films she feels, “I am rather critical of Bollywood in one aspect. The reason they fail at the international box office is because of script. It’s not like the days of Salim-Javed when script writers were stars.”

And the literary stars at the Jaipur Book festival. “Ian McEwan was the star. He is the greatest living fiction writer in English today. If I was a teacher of creative writing I would ask my students to study his ‘Atonement’. And the festival was fantastic. The atmosphere is like being in a College festival, informal, great camaraderie and casual networking.”

Though London-based her Malayali roots beckon, Kerala forming the backdrop of her stories. “I am proud to be a Malayali. There is a surge of pride when we realise that we share statistics with the developed world, but we need to beware of getting into a sense of superiority. It is a great feeling but accompanying that is a deeply conservative society. For me it is less forgivable to be deeply conservative when by and large we are educated people.” And her ten long years in Kochi. “M.G. Road has changed beyond recognition. In the city I was losing my sense of direction as I could not find any of the known landmarks.” Her visit to her fond teacher, Prof. Madhukar Rao’s house, where she did her MA, “I had called him from Thiruvananthapuram. He said, come along, we will sit and laugh together.” And that’s what she did there and in the city enjoying her brief visit.

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