There were only a few interviews, like Rohit Khilnani’s for the Indian Express, which truly captured Parveen’s troubled mind with empathy. Every journalist worth his byline has to jump through hoops to get the interview he wants. In Parveen’s case, these hoops always came across as extreme. For the Indian Express interview, published on 14 August 2002, Khilnani was first asked to read the eighteen-page affidavit, the twenty-two-page petition and the thirty-three-page complaint Parveen had drafted, all of which were attested by her, before they were handed over. She insisted that he record the interview on a tape recorder and that the accompanying photographer Mahendra Parekh carry ‘two umbrella flashes and a digital camera – because digital cameras give you the best pictures’. After the photo session, Parveen used her own camera to click a photo of Khilnani and Parekh ‘just for the record’.
Even as she was plagued by hallucinations and delusions, there was no denying…