How did Nimmi Daruwala become the protagonist of your series?
I remember the moment in 2017 when Nimmi Daruwala acquired shape and substance. I had just finished writing my first big book — a fantasy adventure set in Mumbai called What Maya Saw — and was giddy with freedom and relief. Sudeshna Shome Ghosh [who heads children’s books for Speaking Tiger], asked if I would take a crack at a middle-school series. I’d planned on taking a break from writing, but by the time I finished filling petrol in the car, returning books to the library and buying rubber bands, my head had been taken over by a schoolgirl with messy hair, a gigantic schoolbag and an overactive imagination. Nimmi lives in Cuffe Parade and attends a slightly experimental school called Vidya World School. From the beginning I was clear that — unlike some of my other protagonists who have special powers and are confronted with awful villains — Nimmi would be a regular schoolgirl and deal with everyday problems and joys. That, like all of us, she would make mistakes, do silly things, and lose on occasion. But, once again like all of us, she would win on occasion and find that things had unexpected ways of working out.