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Srilaaji
The untamed, incandescent and battle-ready Srilaa grows up in her wealthy Marwari family’s palatial house in Calcutta. After suffering her first heartbreak at the hands of a potential suitor, she is married and packed off to Bombay to live with her new husband. There she experiences womanhood and confronts her sexual curiosities, misgivings and desires, but continues to hope daringly and love fearlessly—refusing to live her life by the unrealistic standards society often sets on unconventional women. The young and vivacious Srilaa slowly but assuredly becomes the inimitable Srilaaji! And each time life starts crumbling around her, she manages to pick herself up. And from the ashes of an uncertain life, a phoenix rises. Told with Shobhaa De’s matchless blend of candour, humour and seductive earthiness, Srilaaji captures the soul of an indomitable spirit . A book that simmers and erupts at will, and presents us with one of the most unforgettable protagonists in years - the utterly delicious Srilaaji.
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Small Betrayals
17 Stories 17 fierce, honest, moving portraits of women. Shobhaa De unfolds the betrayals and intimacies, the needs and regrets, the secrets that sustain relationships and the ones that threaten to destroy it. In this book, you will be confronted with vaguely familiar scents and images that draw us deeper into a world filled with eccentricities, darkness, love and sorrows-a world that strangely mirrors our own. With lyrical precision and suspenseful storytelling, this volume is rich with contemporary characters that wonderfully integrate different emotions, newly analyzed, examined and experienced. Part dystopian, part dreamy, part romance, part drama, Shobhaa De manages to bring forward a remarkable account of the power of possibility and a womans sense of self. A great read that will force you to question and accept your own society, attitude, purpose and life. About the Author Voted by readers digest as one of Indias most trusted people and one of the 50 most powerful women in India by daily news and analysis, Shobhaa De is one of Indias highest selling authors and a popular social commentator. Her works comprising both fiction and non-fiction have been featured in comparative literature courses at universities abroad and in India. Her writing has been translated into many regional languages as well as French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.
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Shobhaa - Never A Dull De
Women. Men. Women and Men. Its all about The Sexes and how to negotiate the new equations society demands in a rapidly changing, super charged gender confrontation that is throwing up fresh challenges nobody has any real answers to. but which involve us all. Shobhaa De presents a thought provoking anthology of her feminist writings. She bravely goes into sensitive terrain, raising important questions about our emotional complexities when it comes to issues that concern sexual politics in todays India. De covers it all, as she dexterously gets into the minds of contemporary Indians and candidly exposes familiar hypocrisies and hang ups. From tricky marital issues that most are scared to admit to our moral double standards while judging movie stars, politicians, Godmen and assorted celebrities. Unabashedly she debunks the use of nauseatingly old-fashioned terms like keep by an erudite judge, which in turn elicits a quick reaction from legal luminaries. Shobhaa: Never a Dull De provides tantalizing insights into the hidden lives of superstars to shocking incidents in small-town India that rarely find a spot on the front-page; poignant stories about women who silently suffer sexual violations; to the fascinating lives of women politicos who have made it big. Her writing is richly layered and insightful making it hard-hitting and socially relevant. As an important social commentator and opinion shaper, this is De at her sharpest best, fearlessly taking on prejudice and humbug, injustice and oppression,without once losing her humanity. Shobhaa Des rightful sobriquet: the Empress of the Hearts and Minds of the reading masses comes to life in Shobhaa: Never a Dull De!
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Sethji
Sethji is the head of the ABSP, a crucial coalition partner in the government. Shrewd, ruthless and an inveterate fighter, he is a man who refuses to play by any moral codes or lose a single battle. Easing his way is Amrita, his ravishing and aloof daughter-in-law who guards her own secrets. But when two of the country's most powerful men team up to challenge Sethji, the wily old politician has to fight the deadliest battle of his life a battle in which he must stake everything. The one person he is forced to trust is Amrita, a woman who gives nothing away, not even to Sethji. Exposing the dark, venal heart of Indian politics, Sethji is a powerful novel about ambition, greed and above all trust. Gripping, revelatory and absolutely unputdownable, this is De at her dazzling best.
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Snapshots
As the wine and conversion begin to flow at a reunion between six women who were friends at school, memories start to surface – some happy others bitter – sweet and a few that are downright poisonous. Forced to confront dark secrets that they thought lay buried deep in the past, the women began to turn against one another and the mood of the party turns nightmarish... Death, infidelity, incest, rape, lies and the evil that lurks beneath everyday lives of people from the substance of Snapshots, Shobhaa De's explosive best-seller.
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Strange Obsession
Strange Obsession is the story of the gorgeous young super-model Amrita Aggarwal. Within months of her arrival in Bombay, she is the envy of its beautiful people. Then, one day, she attracts the attentions of a mysterious woman called Minx. As the months pass and the demands of her unwelcome suitor grow, Amrita's life turns nightmarish... An unforgettable novel of sexual obsession and its calamitous consequences.
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Speed Post (स्पीडपोस्ट)
आई आणि मुलांमधला रक्तबंध आदिम...शरीराने आणि मनानेही काळजाशी घ्ट्ट बांधलेला ! सुंदर, निरामय जीवनमूल्यांना पैशाच्या दावणीशी बांधून मानवी नात्यांमधला प्राणच शोषू पाहाणार्या आधुनिक अर्थसत्तेने आई मुलांच्या नात्याला नवं परिमाण दिलं आहे... हादरे आणि आव्हानही दिलं आहे. आंतरराष्ट्रीय कीर्तीच्या ख्यातनाम लेखिका शोभा डे यांनी आधुनिकतेच्या झंझावातात जगणार्या आपल्या सहा मुलांना लिहिलेली ही पत्रं... जगातल्या कुठल्याही आईला तिचीच वाटतील अशी ! गोंधळून टाकणार्या, जीवघेण्या स्पर्धेत लोटून उद्ध्वस्त करणार्या दुनियेशी टक्कर देणं अपरिहार्यच बनलेल्या आपल्या मुलांसाठी कुणाही आईचं काळीज तुटावं, अशा प्रत्येक विषयाची चर्चा या पत्रांमध्ये आहे - कुटुंबाची चौकट, परस्परांमधल्या नात्यांचे बंध, कौटुंबिक संस्कृती, परंपरा आणि नीतीमूल्यांचा आग्रह... कठोर शिस्त आणि सारंच झुगारून देणारी बंडखोरी...तासन् तास चालणारे टेलिफोन कॉल्स आणि लठ्ठ बिलांवरून घरात होणार्या हाणामार्या... मध्यरात्रीपर्यंत चालणार्या पार्ट्या आणि इंटरनेटवरचं चॅटींग... वयात येतानाच्या काळज्या, कोवळ्या वयातलं प्रेम, झपाटून टाकणारं शारीरिक आकर्षण आणि मैत्रीची नाजुक गुंतागुंत... जोडीदाराची निवड आणि शारीरिक संबंधांचा तिढा ! देश...देव...धर्म... सामाजिक जबाबदार्या आणि नागरिकत्वाचं भान!- अपरंपार प्रेमाने ओथंबलेली, मायेने जवळ घेणारी, कधी पाठीत धपाटे घालणारी, चिडवणारी, टिंगल करणारी तर कधी धारेवर धरणारी, मनसोक्त हसवणारी आणि हसता हसता अचानक डोळ्यात पाणी उभं करणारी ही सुंदर पत्रं... 'जगण्या'साठी आसुसलेल्या प्रत्येक मनाला स्पर्शून जातील
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Sisters Shobha De'
Ms De shocks India, and much of its literary set like no other writer today.' --New York Times They were beautiful, wealthy and sought after. They were sisters and they were at war. When her parents die in an air crash, Mikki Hiralal suddenly finds herself the owner of the sprawling Hiralal industrial empire. Abandoning her studies in the United States, she returns to Bombay, only to find her father's business affairs in a mess. Almost bankrupt, beset on all sides by creditors, takeover tycoons and unreliable associates, Mikki realizes there is only one person she can turn to for help--the beautiful Alisha, her father's illegitimate daughter. There is only one hitch: Alisha hates Mikki...In her new novel, set in the corrupt world of big business, Shobha De, the bestselling author of Socialite Evenings and Starry Nights, tells an engrossing story of two women who play for very high stakes, driven by ambition, lust, greed and hate....
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Sultry Days
On a sultry, rainy Bombay day Nisha, an impressionable teenager, meets God in the college canteen and falls in love with his ragged, bearded looks and crude, streetwise manners. God patronizingly accepts her into his 'group' and it is in this way that their long and passionate romance begins…. God's driving ambition leads him into the unreal world of pseudo poetry, art for hire and compromised journalism while Nisha lands a job in advertising. Sycophants, court jesters, whores, dirty old men, fixers, pretty boys and party girls drift in and out of their lives (and interrupt their romance!) as their careers take off with dizzying speed… And then, abruptly and harrowingly, everything about their lives goes wrong... 'Ms De shocks India, and much of its literary set like no other writer today' — New York Times...
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Selective Memories
शोभा डे हे नाव बहुचर्चित. कोणत्या ना कोणत्या जगावेगळ्या वागण्यामुळं शोभा डे नेहमीच वादग्रस्त ठरल्या आहेत. 'स्फोटक आणि खळबळजनक’ या शिक्याआड दडलेल्या एका संवेदनशील सच्च्या व्यक्तीचं दुर्मिळ दर्शन 'सिलेक्टिव्ह मेमरी’मधून वाचकांना घडत जातं. अपरिचित वाटांवर हट्टानं, आत्मविश्वासानं पाय रोवणारी, आपल्या व्यक्तिमत्त्वाला नवनवे आयाम जोडणारी खंबीर, आत्मनिर्भर स्त्री वाचकांना झपाटून टाकते. एका ग्लॅमरस व्यक्तीचं विलक्षण पारदर्शी रूप वाचकांना नाविन्याचा अनुभव देते. शोभा डे यांच्या मूळ पुस्तकाचा आत्मा ओळखून आपल्या स्वतंत्र भाषेत अपर्णा वेलणकर यांनी त्याचा अत्यंत रसाळ अनुवाद मराठी वाचकांसाठी सादर केला आहे. शोभा डे यांच्या या मोजक्या अघळपघळ आठवणीत मॉडेलिंगच्या करिअरमधील लोक विलक्षण अनुभव आहेत. 'स्टारडस्ट’ चालवताना दिसलेली नटनट्यांच्या स्वभावप्रवृत्तीची विविध रूपे आहेत. कौटुंबिक जीवन, वृत्तपत्र स्तंभलेखन, कादंबरीलेखन याबाबतचे कसदार अनुभव आहेत. आपले सर्व अनुभव अलिप्तपणे परंतु रंजकतेने सांगण्याची भाषिक क्षमता असल्याने 'सिलेक्टिव्ह मेमरी' विलक्षण भावनांचा पट वाचकांपुढे खुला करते. या स्मरणयात्रेत विविध क्षेत्रातील दंभ, ढोंग उघड झालेले आहे. आपल्या निर्भिड, रोखठोक शैलीत स्वत:चा व अनुभवलेल्या सर्व मार्गाचा घेतलेला वेध म्हणजे 'सिलेक्टिव्ह मेमरी'.
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Shobhaa at Sixty
From India’s most widely read writer You’ve got nothing left to prove ... remember, life begins at 60! For most of us who have crossed the sixtieth milestone in the journey of life, there’s a tendency to consider oneself as ‘over the hill’, a ‘has-been’, or an ‘old fogey’. But for the irrepressible and exuberant Shobhaa Dé, that’s certainly not the case – life only begins at sixty! Declaring sixty the new forty, she comes up with a potent elixir to rejuvenate life, and provides practical tips on how to cope with the physical and emotional downslides commonly experienced by the post-sixty generation. Whether it’s the flagging levels of confidence or diminishing stamina, Shobhaa provides the perfect antidote. She lays great emphasis on family values and ties, and underlines the importance of a spiritual quest – all of which make each passing decade more meaningful and enriching. Drawing up a ‘road map’, which enables the reader to chalk out a future course, Shobhaa shows us how life is so very beautiful and just how much we have to look forward to!
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The truth about Marriage
How marriages work and why they fail… Marriage is an adventure, says Shobhaa Dé, celebrity writer, devoted wife and mother of six. It’s about trust, companionship, affection and sharing. It’s also about learning to cope with your partner’s moods and eccentricities. Not to mention the delicate balancing act between parents, children, friends and a career, and the sometimes overpowering need to get away from it all. In this delightful book on society’s most debated institution, Shobhaa Dé writes about how and why marriages work-or don’t. With her usual disregard for rules, she reinvents tradition and challenges old stereotypes, addressing all the issues that are central to most Indian marriages: the saas-bahu conundrum (how to escape the role-trap and enjoy each other), the need for honesty (aren’t some secrets better left secret?), the importance of romance (no, expressions of love are not unmanly!), and not any less important, how to recognize the warning signs in a hopeless relationship and run before it’s too late. Fun, savvy and, above all, pragmatic, this is the ultimate relationship book for all those who want to make the adventure of marriage last a lifetime.
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Starry Nights
Aasha Rani, the ravishingly beautiful ‘Sweetheart of Millions’, makes one fatal career-move: she falls in love. Aasha Rani, the unrivalled number one of Bombay cinema, seems intent on ruining her career—and her life—blinded by a scorching passion that threatens to destroy everything she has attained. Aasha Rani’s story is that of a vulnerable, small-town girl whose scheming mother pushes her via a never-ending orgy of blue films and indiscriminate sex into the crass world of Bombay cinema, teeming with vicious, preening stars and near-stars and insecure, high-society celebrities: Akshay Arora, the reigning stud of 70mm and the object of Aasha Rani’s desire; Sheth Amirchand, the Don of Bombay’s underworld, under whose hallowed sheets her career is sealed; Kishenbhai, the small-time distributor, who gives her her first break, and his heart; Sudha, her younger sister, whose envy and hate of her sister’s success make her Aasha Rani’s worst enemy.
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Speed Post
The relationship between a mother and her children is unquestionably the most special human bond there is. In this book, best-selling author Shobha De writes a series of letters to her six children on the key concerns of every mother and child in the 21st century: family values and tradition; growing pains and adolescent anxieties about love, sex and friendship; religion and God; and the challenge of being a responsible parent.Rich, compassionate, witty and wise, these letters will touch the hearts of readers everywhere.
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Superstar India
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