Theatre is a fertile world for detective stories, since it offers countless possibilities for duplicity, subterfuge and misdirection. However The Blinding Light, the only novel by the Indian Virendra Chandani, was no cliche. In fact, it is quite the opposite, an extraordinary achievement of story-telling and imagination. This story is remarkable due to the fact that Chandani never visited the theatre in her entire life.
Virendra Chandani was born just outside the town of Nagpur in the West of India in 1923. There she attended a missionary school, where she was taught to read and write in strict, classical English style. During her teens, she gained employment with one of the colonial administrators of the British Raj, as a maid or possibly a nanny.
It is not known whether the young Virendra heard stories of the ‘theatre’ here, or whether they had been impressed on her at the missionary school. What is known, is that she sheepishly presented the first draft of her manuscript to her employer, Colonel Henry Rathbone (later KBE) in the summer of 1938. Rathbone was obviously taken completely by surprise at this offering, and the fact he “had a novellist for a maid” became the source of much conversation over Bridge tables in the following weeks.
Rathbone was a progressive and jovial character, and resolved to help Chandani edit and publish her work. However, the outbreak of World War II prevented him from making good on this promise. It was 1941 before he was able to visit Nagpur again, by which time Chandani had contracted pulmonary tuberculosis and died.
The following passage is a typical example of Chandani’s niaive yet charming style, narrating a scene she had seen only in her mind’s eye, a story set in a contient she would never visit.
PERFORMANCE CANCELLED
This caused a stir in the queue, beginning at its head, but the excitement subsided and the queue began to disperse. After an hour there was scarcely a trace of it on Sadovaya Street. The detectives left to pursue their inquiries elsewhere, the staff, except for the watchmen, were dismissed and the doors of the Variety were closed.
Vassily Stepanovich the accountant had two urgent tasks to perform. Firstly to go to the Commission for Theatrical Spectacles and Light
