But then my co-worker Alyssa Boehm pointed me to an article on Phoolan Devi, the Bandit Queen of India, and now I'm hooked. I can't get enough about this woman! The clincher is a quote I found in an Atlantic Monthly feature from last year. Sunil Sethi, an Indian columnist who has followed Devi since her surrender, said: "Phoolan is a do-it-yourself goddess who can rapidly demonize." A DIY goddess! What a woman.

If you haven't heard of Devi: She's from one of India's lowest castes, she was married off at 11 (to a 31-year-old) and ran away at 12, returned at 20 to defend her father and was raped, so the story goes. First in detention, then by bandit leaders, in public, for days, until she could no longer bear children. So she decided to form her own gang, and she began to wreak havoc on the lives of rapists. She killed them, in fact. People began to believe she was the reincarnation of Kali, goddess of death and motherhood. (The film "The Bandit Queen" is about Devi, but she was not consulted on it, so she tried to get it banned.)

It's a long story, but Devi spent roughly a decade in jail (no trial), and now she's a parliamentarian who claims, "Your pen is mightier than a gun." Most people who say this are writers. Let's see if she's still this convinced after a few more years in government. I hope so.