Book review
'This is a story about India. My India. It is a very personal story. You see, I'm exactly as old as India is.'

It all began when, viewing the breathless preparations for independent India's 60th birthday celebrations--and poised then on her own sixth decade—Shobhaa Dé was struck by the thought: 'Surely my life has taken the same trajectory as the country's?' In an intimate confession to her readers, she answers that question, and many more: Does India really deserve to congratulate itself? Has it lived up to the early promises it made to its people? Does the author believe in India herself?

Surveying the many images of the country, Dé points out that for every truism about India the opposite is also true: India as the land of the meek; India as inheritor of the earth; India gherao-ed by distinctly unfriendly neighbours; Indians fleeing to jobs in the West and then racing right back to a better life; Indians who ape their erstwhile colonizers and yet cling irrationally to tradition.

In a departure from anything else she has written, Shobhaa Dé lasers in on Indian people and their place in the larger human society, pointing out her country's historical failings and equally historical glories. Admitting to our knee-jerk reactions to much of what is happening at home and in the world, Dé reasons, nevertheless, that the nation has earned superstar status, and with humorous argumentativeness, she convinces the reader that India is not about to lose its glow.

Published by : Penguin Books India
Published : April 2008
Imprint : Penguin
ISBN : 0143102583
ISBN13 : 9780143102588
Edition : Paperback
Format : B
Extent : 456 pp
Classification : Non Fiction


About the author Shobhaa (Rajadhyakasha) Dé was born in Maharashtra in 1948 and was educated in Delhi and Bombay. She graduated from St Xavier’s College, Bombay, with a degree in psychology and began a career in journalism in 1970. Since then she has founded and edited three popular magazines—Stardust, Society and Celebrity—and has also been Consulting Editor to Sunday and Mega City. She is presently a freelance writer and columnist for several newspapers and magazines including the Times of India, the Statesman and the Sunday Observer. Shobhaa Dé is the best-selling author of several books including Socialite Evenings, Sultry Days, Starry Nights, Sisters, Speedpost and Surviving Men. Shobhaa Dé is married, with six children. She lives in Bombay.