Can Murder on the Orient Express ever be situated in a Mumbai local?

"I have a detective who lives in Vile Parle East. She can't get any more Indian," says writer Kalpana Swaminathan about Lalli, who was born in a short story she wrote in 1997, before the feisty sleuth in her sixties commanded an entire series. This Saturday, Swaminathan will discuss the difficulties and specificities of being a detective in India through Lalli's world. At the talk, participants can also get their hands on Murder in Seven Acts, Swaminathan's seventh book in the Lalli series.

Kalpana Swaminathan. Pic/Ishrat Syed

"The main problem that a writer of detective fiction faces is the contrast between writing a detective story and a crime story which appears in the press," says the writer, adding that when you read a crime report, it has very little to do with the art of detection, whereas the latter becomes an integral part of the narrative of a detective fiction story.

About the specific difficulties that Indian detectives face, she urges us to visualise a situation. "Pick up a standard American or British detective fiction story and transpose it to where you are in Mumbai at the moment. See how difficult it is to establish the conditions that are common to all European and American stories - isolation and a lack of reactivity on the part of the bystander, for instance - in India," she explains, before leaving us us with a fascinating thought: "Just try staging Murder on the Orient Express on Western Railway!"

On: April 7, 5 pm to 6.30 pm
At: Harkat Studios, Bungalow no. 75, Aram Nagar Part II, Versova, Andheri West
Log on to: insider.in
Cost: Rs 250

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