In a new book, British author Roy Moxham recalls his unlikely friendship with Chambal's most-feared dacoit Phoolan Devi. Sunday Mid Day gets a first

One morning in June 1992, an English author wrote to an Indian bandit. Surprisingly enough, she received the letter, and more surprisingly, she replied. Thus began the unlikely friendship between Roy Moxham and Phoolan Devi. Over the course of nearly a decade, the duo met a few times, exchanged stories about their lives across separate continents, and came close enough for Phoolan to call Moxham her 'Brother'. In his just released book, Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and Me, Moxham shares notes on India's much-feared dacoit who passed away in 2001.

What was running through your mind when you first wrote to Phoolan Devi?u00a0
Our original relationship I wrote to Phoolan on an impulse. I had read that morning in 1992 of her standing for a parliamentary by-election, to draw attention to her plight and to seek a voice for the poor. The article had a summary of her troubled past. I felt Phoolan's life had been trying. She had surrendered on the promise that she would be released after eight years in jail, but that's not how things unfolded. Later, even I was amazed that I had written to her. I didn't think it likely that she'd receive the letter, let alone reply. But she did.