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Shock factor is basis of her success
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January 6, 2010
By Meneesha Govender
In India she is known as an an author, socialite, celebrity, former beauty queen and model, columnist, designer and pen behind a number of popular television serials. A mouthful indeed.
Shobhaa Dé is also a role model to many young Indian women.
Born Shobhaa Rajadhyaksha on January 7, 1947, in Maharshtra, Dé went on to graduate from St Xavier's College, Mumbai, with a degree in psychology. After finishing college, this disarmingly beautiful woman, who also sports a tattoo on her bicep, made a name for herself as a model.
She started her career in journalism in 1970 and went on to edit popular magazines Stardust, Society and Celebrity.
She also writes regular columns in the Bombay Times, The Sunday Times and The Week.
After an amicable divorce from her first husband in 1984, she married Dilip Dé.
She wrote her first novel, Socialite Evenings, in 1988. Since then she has churned out books at an astonishing pace and each one shocks on a new level.
From arranged marriages to extra-marital affairs, from lesbian relationships to the streets where the seedy world of gangsters are highlighted, from the world of the rich and pampered to the single roomed apartment of the middle classes, nothing about life in Mumbai escapes Dé's critical eye.
The erotic content of her novels has made her a rather controversial novelist in conservative India. Despite the controversy around her work, she remains one of India's best-selling authors.
Sisters
Mikki Hiralal has it all - wealth, class, beauty, and a carefree life in the US at a prestigious university.
But when her parents die suddenly and tragically in a plane crash, her world comes crashing down around her.
Suddenly, not only is she an orphan, but she also inherits her father's crumbling empire at the same time that she learns she has a stepsister who is just four months younger than her.
But Alisha hates Mikki. Born as the illegitimate daughter of "The Seth" as their father is known, she is always the outsider. She lives in her shadow always. The irony is that while Mikki inherits the family empire, it is Alisha who ends up with the money.
The Hiralal empire is almost bankrupt and it will take a miracle or a ruthless tycoon to save it.
Alisha's trust fund, however, has paid out dividends and at last she is able to move on up in the world. But her consuming hatred of Mikki means she is always comparing her achievements to Mikki's.
In the cut-throat world of business, Mikki has no idea who she can trust, and soon finds herself making a number of decisions that she pays for dearly. She finds herself, at the tender age 20, completely at the mercy of her abusive husband who already has a family with his mistress and forces Mikki to have an abortion.
Mikki's life hits rock bottom when her husband kicks her out of his home and strips her of all of her family's possessions except the family home.
Alisha should be happy, but life is not that simple.
Her realty business is thriving. But, between a mother who is a substance abuser and her love for a married man, Alisha cannot find happiness. When her mother dies, Alisha also hits rock bottom and the only person who can save her is Mikki.
It is a battle and the two sisters have all the odds stacked against them.
Strange Obsession
Amrita is young, gorgeous and sexy.
She leaves her home in Delhi for the bright lights of Bombay where she hopes to make a career for herself as a model.
Within months of her arrival, things are going well and she is on her way to being one of the most successful supermodels of India.
Then she meets Minx - a mysterious woman with a dark past and even darker hopes for Amrita and her life in Bombay.
Before she knows it, Amrita is caught in a diabolical web weaved by Minx and her hope of escape is almost impossible.
She is trapped in a relationship with Minx that she detests and is ashamed of but to which she nevertheless surrenders.
Strange Obsession is a novel about the sexual obsession of one woman for another. It is a gripping and at times frightening read.
The issue of lesbianism is not something that Dé goes into in any depth. It may also be that the value of Dé using such shocking subject matter in her work, is that these subjects are brought into the public domain and people are forced to acknowledge them at least.
Second Thoughts
Maya is eager to escape her dull middle-class existence with her parents in Calcutta.
When a possible suitor in Bombay shows interest in her, Maya jumps at the opportunity and accepts his marriage proposal.
Ranjan is handsome and ambitious, has studied in the US and comes from a wealthy family. Maya could not have hoped for better, she is told.
She soon finds herself trapped and stifled in an arranged marriage to a man she soon finds to be conservative, indifferent to her needs or desires, and completely devoted to his mother.
Maya can never be as good as Ranjan's mother no matter how hard she tries, no matter what she does.
Then she meets Nikhil, a charming neighbour.
Nikhil forces her to question her complete devotion to her husband and sterile existence. The stage is set for a tale of betrayal, an extra-marital affair. This is a dark, hopeless story about arranged marriages.
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