Religion, mysticism, terrorism, women's sexuality and motherhood — these were just some of the topics that came up during the reading of Sagarika Ghose's second novel Blind Faith recently. Sagarika, senior editor and prime-time anchor on CNN-IBN, made her debut as a novelist with the critically acclaimed Gin Drinkers in 2000. Gin Drinkers was a much younger book, written by a much younger person. But what is common to both the books is that they are political in nature.

Set in 2001, Blind Faith aims to interrogate the complexities of religion using as symbols two significant events that occurred that year — the Mahakumbh mela in January and the terrorist attacks on the U.S. in September. “The Mahakumbh was an example of religion at its most magnificent and inclusive, with no deity, temple or priest; just pilgrims of all religious denominations, the sun and the water," said Sagarika, who covered the mela as a journalist in 2001. On the other hand, the fundamentalist, extremist aspect of religion was represented by the ideology of those behind 9/11 attacks.

The novel maps the journey of two women, Mia, a TV journalist based in London, who is struggling to find a way to cope with her father's suicide, and a brilliant, beautiful, promiscuous hotel owner in Goa who is bitter about a rare condition that has caused her to go blind. In doing so, it sets up the conflict between orthodox religion and the sexual woman, something Sagarika felt strongly about.

The body of the sexual woman is seen as defiling the divine. The woman is seen as impure and dirty and all the things that take away from the male purity of orthodox religion. However, not all in the audience agreed. The question that followed after reading the book were making me think , that most orthodox religions, including Hinduism, were patriarchal?

Another provocative theme that winds its way through the novel is the ambivalence women can have towards motherhood and their children, drawing on Hindu mythology for metaphors. Women are socialised to be mothers, but it doesn't always come naturally, said Sagarika. There exist complex constructions of motherhood in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and this novel is the first step towards exploring them.
On the whole, writing her second novel was much easier than her first, believes the Rhodes Scholar and mother of two. "I think I had a little more fun with the second book," she said. Between her high-pressure job, and her family, it has to be asked — how does she do it all? Husband and leading television journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, it seems, is the key. "He's supportive and is tremendously good with the kids," Sagarika said. "If I needed to write one Sunday, he'd take the kids out for a game or swimming. That helped a lot!"