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Alister McMillan

Kavita Daswani

KAVITA DASWANI is writing the ending to her second novel while you read this story. You know as much as she about what that ending will be.

The South China Morning Post's former fashion editor set herself to write the last 25,000 words of the 70,000-word book two weeks ago, after her editor refused to extend today's  deadline.

Daswani, 38, figured she could find time between publicising her recently released debut novel and caring for her 20-month-old son, Jahan.

The real work, she says, lies in taking the literary world as seriously as other authors and publishers.

'If I've learned one thing from this experience it's that it's all hustle, it's all marketing,' Daswani says. 'The popularity of women's literature - chick lit - makes me nervous sometimes. When I tell people what the book is about I'm thinking, 'God, so what'. The key is to try to make it different and more authentic.

'I thought I might have a really happy ending, but now I think I might play with that. Some people write plot outlines and draw their characters. I just sit  there blind in front of the computer and see what happens.'

Her debut, For Matrimonial Purposes, is selling well in 12 countries following its release in French, German, Dutch, Italian and Portuguese.

The story of Anju - a 30-something Bombay girl working in New York but feeling pressure to marry into the traditional Indian lifestyle - was inspired by the Indian community of Hong Kong, Daswani's birthplace and home for most of her life.

Her British publishing deal stipulated a second book, turning writing - a pursuit Daswani used to keep her busy during pregnancy - into a job.

'I didn't really know what was going to happen to the first book, and I don't know that I really cared. But now the second book is bought and paid for and I have to do it.'

But Daswani says she has enjoyed the added pressure of deadlines and expectations  and admits that even her research is made easier by writing about her Indian culture.

She avoids giving fashion, the industry that has dominated her career, much prominence in her writing. 'The world has had its fill of fashion novels,' Daswani says. 'When I read The Devil Wears Prada I thought, 'God, I could have done that'.

'However, it's not so different with my book. I wrote about a girl whose parents are trying to find her a husband. There are no great shakes there.

'I did a TV show with an interviewer who said that in that week alone she had interviewed three other Asian authors, all of whom had written books about their mothers trying to find them husbands. Once an idea gets out there it seems to become a mass theme without anybody even discussing it.'

The international success of For Matrimonial Purposes owes a lot to its use of cross-cultural themes without spurning traditional ways.

Daswani admits that Anju's experience is largely her own. She says that although she married only three years ago, she had never been against the institution.

'The right man never came along,' she says. 'People said no to me and I rejected some. But I was pretty open to marriage. I don't think I consciously resisted it.

'However, I did get caught up in my career. Hong Kong is in many ways a small place and I had quite a high-profile job that involved a lot of travel. I think a lot of men in the Indian community didn't really want that. I also think that it all went to my head. I was often a little standoffish in some ways. Perhaps I was perceived as rather high-maintenance and chi-chi. Looking back on those days, I realise that I don't think I would have been good at marriage. Now I find I am good at it.

'It helped that I had to get the other stuff out my system.'

The change came when she was introduced to Los Angeles resident Nissim Raymond.

'My friend just called me and said, 'I've met the man you're going to marry, your soul-mate'. We started e-mailing each other between Hong Kong and LA,' Daswani says. 'That progressed to long phone conversations. Within a month of the first e-mail we met while I was on a business trip in the States. Six months later we were engaged.'

After Daswani moved to LA, Raymond sold his successful office-supply business to stay at home with his wife, write his own books and help care for their son.

'I don't go out much any more,' she says. 'I hate travelling now. It's a complete turn.'

She will return to Hong Kong next month to visit family and spruik For Matrimonial Purposes.

'A friend just called to say she was reading my book while flying home to Hong Kong when the flight attendant approached her. The attendant asked if that book was any good because there were three other passengers on the same flight reading it. That was really nice, so cool. I'm thrilled.'

But success is yet to see her take writing too seriously.

'My Hindi is appalling and I've never lived in India, so I won't be writing the great Indian novel,' Daswani says. 'Indian writers are expected to be exquisitely literary, which I'm so not.'



Thriving under pressure