Initially, the author, who was born in Chennai (previously known as Madras) in 1975 and currently lives in Tamil Nadu with her husband, writer Carlo Pizzati, said she could not really grasp the danger on a visceral level because she lived a safe and privileged life.

However, the tragic death of her friend, Indian perfumer Monika Ghurde, changed everything.

Ghurde, who had been Doshi’s close friend for a long time, died tragically on Oct. 6, 2016 after being raped and murdered. A 21-year-old man named, Rajkumar Singh, was accused of the crime.

“The event changed the whole equation for me because the victim was my close friend. Typically, when you read such cases in the newspaper, you don’t have to imagine what a victim’s life was like and thereby may not feel empathy for them,” she said.

“In news reports regarding her death, my friend will always be the dead girl; readers don’t necessarily grasp this one life has been extinguished and taken away forever by violence.”

Doshi said she coped with her grief by writing poetry. The result is her latest poetry collection Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods (2018).