Damini. Nirbhaya. Amanat. Those were the names the nation’s media called her by. Yes, true to all the words, she was a light, fearless and to be treasured.

Millions of candles burnt into ashes. The first book that came out as a tribute to Jyoti Singh Pandey is ‘Damini’. The sordid tale of Jyoti has been portrayed in the pages of this book. It was published by Patra Bharati in February, 2013.

Also included in the book are the reactions of celebrities, eminent politicians, peoples’ verdict from all over the nation, and also the reactions of the victim’s family members. 16th to 29th December, 2012 - it was a 23 year-old girl’s 13 days of unbearable ordeal. 16th December was a breezy Delhi evening, and a Sunday she looked forward to. She never had it in her worst nightmares that it would be the last sunset she was watching, and a movie she last went to with her fiancé. At Safdarjung Hospital, she had undergone three abdominal surgeries and she remained on ventilator-support. Her organs failed one by one, her platelet count deteriorated drastically, and her gangrened intestines were scooped out by doctors. When she was flown in an air-ambulance to Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital, speculation was ubiquitous about her condition. She lost in the battle against death, but has remained immortal as the symbol of the relentless crime against women in the country.

The reason that has whet my desire and interest to write this book - By narrating her life and her ordeal, I wanted more and more people to know what she and her family went through. This country needs to learn lessons from the real life sufferance and hurdles of common people. This book also has a soul-wrenching Hindi poem composed by superstar Amitabh Bachchan. I was speechless after I came across the poem, so I wanted to include it in the book for many more people to read.

Jyoti. Lost into nature’s five elements just at twenty three years of age, what did she leave back? Whatever happened with her, and the battle she fought against death for thirteen days left back a message for a nation of 1.2 billion people. The book has some rare photographs of the Mahavir Enclave residence of the Pandey family, the bus in which the gruesome crime was committed, the spot where the injured bodies of the girl and her fiancé were thrown out of the bus, the hospitals in Delhi and Singapore where Jyoti was treated, and protests across the Capital and nationwide. Justice delayed is justice denied, and I would pray that Jyoti’s soul gets the ultimate justice.