SOUTH INDIA — Roopa Unnikrishnan launched her fiction debut novel, The Jasmine Murders, in India in January 2026. The book represents the first novel from Unnikrishnan, who was most recently SVP, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer of IDEX Corporation.

The novel grew from long Zoom calls with her parents during the COVID pandemic, which included half-remembered details about 1960s South India. Unnikrishnan spent hours interviewing her parents, combing through archival materials, and cross-checking geography, politics, cultural norms, news events, and police procedures for 1960s South India.

During her research, Unnikrishnan verified whether a train line existed in 1965 and whether a particular police procedure was introduced in the 1970s. "I think and ask questions like a writer," said Unnikrishnan.

"Reading and writing fiction have become my way of exercising the same circuitry I rely on to anticipate market reactions, understand stakeholder perspectives, and work through organizational dynamics," Unnikrishnan said.

Writing activates the brain's default network, which supports the ability to simulate hypothetical scenes, spaces, and mental states.

Unnikrishnan has written creatively and cooking blogs, poetry, and business books and articles. She is the author of The Career Catapult and has a book on strategy in an uncertain world scheduled for release in 2027.