Jaipur: When a session becomes 'crime and punishment'

It was sort of anti-climax. When the session on two novels ‘The Price You Pay’ and ‘How Not To Make Money’ started, its venue -Darbar Hall in the Diggi Palace- was jam-packed. But, as a considerable time of session was consumed by the writers to read out excerpts from their novels, a number of the audience started leaving even while the session was still on. The writers, Somnath Batabyal (of ‘The Price You Pay’) and Raj Kundra and Arghya Lahiri (of ‘How Not To Make Money’) gave the insights of their respective books which are based on crime. The authors said that the crime is now a class war. While Somnath, who worked as a crime reporter, said his novel is based on the incidents he came across during his stint as a crime reporter, businessman-turned-writer Kundra said that his fictional work was based on a true story.

Moderator Kishwar Desai termed the Raj Kundra-Arghya Lahiri duo as the new Salim-Javed pair and hoped that their work would turn out to be a success as the Bollywood mega hit, Sholay.