Introduction

When you visit an Indian restaurant, from the god awfully long menu, there is one genre of food item that always stands out— us desis are in fact known for this around the world. The tandoor. From tandoori naan to tandoori chicken, and hell, tandoori paneer for all our vegetarian listeners out there, the tandoor is an integral part of any brown kid’s childhood. But this seemingly innocent cylindrical clay oven found itself embroiled in a case that captured and haunted Delhities for years; this cylindrical clay oven stood at the center of a love story, a hate story and an impeccable investigation conducted by the Delhi police in the late 90s. This is the story of that clay over; this is the story of the Tandoor murder.