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Showing posts from January, 2019

Book Review of 'In Hot Blood'

Book Review In hot blood: The Nanavati case that shook India by Bachi Karkaria, Juggernaut Books, 2017 The Nanavati Case was an event, which turned Bombay of the 1950s and 60s into a seething cauldron of intense emotions. A handsome Parsi war hero and naval commander Kawas Nanavati learns from his English wife Sylvia that she was having an affair with a Sindhi businessman and friend Prem Ahuja. On the afternoon of 27 April 1959, Nanavati storms into Ahuja’s bedroom and “meets, shoots and leaves” turning himself in to the law. When the cause celebre comes for trial, the legal eagles have a field day, the courts are turned into a circus, and the media frenzy is stoked by the flamboyant Russi Karanjia of ‘The Blitz’ sending the tabloid’s circulation soaring in that pre-television era. Coming to the party are a galaxy of political, naval and legal luminaries—Nehru, V.K.K Menon, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Katari and Nanda, Nani Palkivala, H.M. Seervai, Ram Jethmalani and others.