The Indian woman comes of age and how!

While the rest of the world seems to believe that Indian women don't have fun, author Jaishree Misra is out to prove that girls in India have as many good times as their contemporaries elsewhere.

In Bangalore to launch her new novel, Secrets and Sins, Misra explains her stance, "Many people in the world still expect books from India to be centred on the 'silent suffering woman from the subcontinent'. But I like to portray the contemporary Indian woman who is happy, enjoys friendships and has a lot of fun too."

Misra's first book Ancient Promises, was a best seller across the world and was translated into German, Greek and Malayalam, She has come a long way since then, with many other books which spanned historical fiction, semi-autobiography and regular women's fiction too.

Secrets and Sins revolves around two characters, Riva Singh and Aman Khan who had a passionate love affair seven years ago. Despite their attraction, Riva rejected Aman for Ben, who is now her husband. Later Riva becomes a best selling novelist, based in London and Aman becomes a Bollywood superstar.  Suddenly, Riva and Aman are thrown together at the Cannes film festival and they fall in love all over again. But both are beset by guilt and sorrow that their love affair could destroy everything else they hold dear.

"I was inspired to write this story when I went to watch Shah Rukh Khan on a London stage," she says. "He used to study in a neighbouring school in Delhi when I was a kid. I began imagining what it would have been like if I had known him in school and later met him as a superstar. And that's where the story began in my mind."

As for her characters, Misra finds that her heroine Riva has emerged as smug and self centred. "Even as the story progresses, she constantly seems to have her cake and eat it too," says Misra. "No one has it so good in real life. That is why I had to introduce another character who is suffering due to an adulterous relationship. The second layer of characterisation shows the pain that such relationships can cause."

Would she classify her books as 'chick-lit'? "I don't think so," she says. "I find that most chick lits are quite funny and usually have a ditzy heroine. My books are not funny and so they could be classified as 'women's fiction'. But writing chick lits is not easy at all. Behind every ditzy heroine is the very sharp brain of the author who has made her up."

Misra who moved to Delhi from London recently and has settled down there says that life has undergone a sea change since then. "Besides my writing I am also involved in an NGO. I will be setting up a residential care centre for mentally challenged adults with the help of the government where we will provide vocational training too."

Her new book Secrets and Sins is a part of a three-book deal by the Avon imprint of Harper Collins in the UK. The first of these books, 'Secrets & Lies', was published in June 2009.  The second in the 'Secrets' trilogy, Secrets & Sins' was published in the UK in July and has just been launched in India too. Misra is also due to speak at the Hay-on-the-Beach festival in November and at the Jaipur Literature Festival in January next year. She is also working on her third book in the series.

According to Misra a good book can change your life. "Fiction opens up other people's hearts and souls for you and hopefully makes you a better person too," she says.