Millennium city as muse for murder mysteries
NEWDELHI: Joygopal Podder loves to write crime thrillers. And Gurgaon is his muse. Of his 18 books, 10 are set in the millennium city.
“There is a story at every corner, thanks to its transformation from a mofussil into a glitzy urban centre,” says Poddar, whose crime thrillers The Millennium City, The Anniversary Killer and Beware of the Night, are all set in Gurgaon.
He is not alone. An increasing number of writers are setting their works of fiction in Gurgaon’s fertile ground. Manish Dubey’s ‘A Murder in Gurgaon’, and actor Diksha Basu, whose latest novel ‘The Windfall’, is a comedy of manners involving an east Delhi’s family’s shift to Gugaon after it comes into wealth, both have the city as backdrop.
Podder and Dubey have virtually created a new genre, what can be called Gurgaon Noir – stories that expose the dark underbelly of the throbbing millennium city that has been renamed Gurugram.
“Gurgaon seems to be throbbing with so much energy, but at the same time there are many lonely people in the city hunting for an emotional anchor,” says Dubey.
Prasoon, a management professional whose latest book The Imperfect is set in Gurgaon and Lucknow, compares the city with Mumbai.
“Both cities assimilate people from all socio-economic backgrounds. And like Mumbai, Gurgaon is a city of dreams for many youngsters seeking to make it big in life, and like Mumbai it is a city full of stories, a maximum city,” he says.