Nazaqat

'A prostitute turned entrepreneur, who hires a ghost writer to make a biography. 

A murder that she was accused for and her vision to legalize prostitution completely in India.

A parallel conspiracy that threatens her life and her vision.

A forgotten tale of mermaid, that must be told.

Time is ticking and history would be altered. What would be the fate of Nazaqat?

Will she succeed in her vision or she would end up as a victim?'

Naazani Singh Shekhawat is a girl from Dehradun. She had a lonely childhood, her mother died while delivering her and her father was a general in Indian army, who would be either on duty or boozing with his friends. Her father had always lived a disciplined life; too strict on the people around and on himself. Naazani had always lived a life of desolation; motherless girl, an insensitive father and a limited number of friends in her all-girl-convent school. Life was quite boring for her after she returned home from her convent school. She confined herself within their old fashioned luxurious house in the valley of Dehradun.

But life was entirely different for Naazani after she moved to Delhi for her higher education, particularly after her encounter with Sharat. Sharat was an opportunist guy who had smelled business the moment he met her. Well, Naazani was an epitome of beauty and with every passing day she was becoming more and more exotic. She had the seductive killer eyes and guys were just crazy for her. Somehow under Sharat’s influence Naazani entered into the world of prostitution, that too wholeheartedly. She was happy and loved her profession. She enjoyed experiencing new guys and found it very interesting. Naazani used the name Nazaqat and she became famous with this name in her darker world. She was living a dual life, one that of Naazani and another of Nazaqat. Naazani was humble and a very sensitive girl, while Nazaqat was opportunist, selfish and egoistic.

Several years later, Naazani is quite older now. Nazaqat in her, had already died. Naazani had filed a petition to completely legalize prostitution in India. This has made her a celebrity and she is constantly in media headlines these days. And very recently she has been accused of murdering her close friend Biplab. Is it a conspiracy? Well, the climax of the story is very interesting and I was really thrilled.

I enjoyed reading the book; it’s a crime thriller. But throughout the story I couldn’t understand the character Nazaqat. Neither she was money hungry nor the author has portrayed her as a hardcore nymphomaniac. I completely failed to understand why she continued to be a prostitute. I could only make out that Nazaqat loved to meet new people, talk to them and sometimes also enjoyed seducing them. But God has designed human beings in such a way that women need not indulge in prostitution to experience such things. 

The author Harsh Agarwal is a young writer who made his debut in publishing industry at an early age of 19. He is an Engineering graduate, but nowadays he’s into full time writing business. Apart from writing he also runs an organization ‘The Asylum’, which aims to help aspiring authors. Due to some reason Harsh had written Nazaqat with a pseudo name of Sasha H Singhal. After reading the book I asked him why he had published it with a pseudo name, ‘were you afraid of your parents?’ Well, Harsh simply burst into laughter and replied, 'no, that was not the reason'

Title: Nazaqat

Author: Sasha H Singhal

Publisher: Half Baked Beans

Genre: Fiction (Thriller)