She's incredible!
She's unstoppable!
She's sixty!
In independent India's diamond jubilee year,
Penguin India's best-selling author, journalist and social commentator returns with
SUPERSTAR INDIA
From Incredible to Unstoppable
SHOBHAA DÉ
There could have been no better person than Shobhaa Dé to pen the account of the incredible journey of independent India. In the sixtieth year of India's independence, this best-selling author, social commentator, and as she puts it herself, 'cheerleader of independent India' turns sixty as well. Superstar India mirrors her own life, just as it tells the story of what our nation is all about in a way that has never been told before.
It all began when, viewing the breathless planning of celebrations for free India's 60th birth anniversary, and poised on her own—unbelievably—sixth decade, it struck Dé: 'Surely my life has taken the same trajectory as the country's?'
Does India really deserve to congratulate itself? Has it lived up to the early promises it made its people? Does Dé herself believe in India?
In a departure from anything else she has written, she lasers in on people and their places in the larger human society, India's past, present and future generations, its historical failings and equally historical glory. Analyzing where Indians go wrong (particularly in relation to foreigners and their countries), she nevertheless finds reason to accord the nation 'superstar' status, and with humorous argumentativeness, convinces the reader completely on that point.
Journalism comes to the fore once again in the writing career of this best-selling author as she proves, one by one, that for every truism about India, the opposite is also true.
In the long tradition of non-fiction books on India, this is possibly the first contemporary take narrated in a distinctly female voice. It's Everywoman's version of India and change.
Shobhaa Dé is one of India's top best-selling authors and one of the most prominent cultural icons. 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 now one of India's most widely read columnists, with a readership of over 10 million a month.
Shobhaa's eleven books with Penguin have all been enduring commercial triumphs. She gave new definition to the mass market bestseller with her writing in the 1990s, and her books have remained perennial favourites with readers over the years. Four of Shobhaa Dé's novels are featured in the post-graduate popular culture curriculum of the University of London. Starry Nights has been recently published in the UK by Penguin (as Bollywood Nights) and has met with a tremendous response. Her last book Spouse: The Truth About Marriage, published in 2005, was a phenomenal bestseller and rewrote publishing history in India. Superstar India is all set to better that record.
AUTHOR NOTE
The obsessive-compulsive writer of fifteen books, Shobhaa Dé has spent the last three years in the pursuit of her first vocation, journalism. Her columns are ubiquitous, appearing in nearly every newspaper and magazine of note. They carry her customarily edgy observations on matters of politics, the economy, business and commerce, the heart and the hearth.
Best-selling author, jet-setting commentator and honest critic, she is most at home in Mumbai--a city which is also a recurrent 'character' in much of her work—living there with her husband Dilip and (when they're around) their six children.
DESCRIPTION
'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.
PAPERBACK
CATEGORY: Non Fiction
ISBN: 9780143102588
FORMAT: B
BINDING: Paperback
PAGES: 456 pp
IMPRINT: Penguin
PRICE: Rs 350
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