Kevein Books and Reviews

The relationship between mother and child is nothing less than beauty and happiness bonded in their blood. Shobha De’s Speed Post is proved to be a written record of such a wonderful relationship. Speed Post by Shobha De is a kind of biographical book of a twenty-first-century Indian mother. Here the focus is on being a friend more than a mother, through letters. As we go through these letters we can visualize every aspect of Shobha De’s life, whether it is her childhood, her attitude towards the world, her approach to accepting modern views, or her motherly propensity to tackle the problems and issues of her children. In ‘Speed Post’ Shobha De has written letters to her children. The letters are interesting for the teenagers as well as the parents too. The most glaring aspect of the lives of teenagers today is their disturbed relationship with their parents and guardians. Teen-parent relationships lack trust, intimacy, and frankness. Many teenagers are starved of pare...

‘Sisters’ is an exciting novel by Shobha De. It tells an absorbing and thrilling story of two sisters Mikki (Mallika) and her half-sister Alisha. Alisha was born of Hiralal and his mistress Leelaben. It is also the story of violence and wide conspiracy that is hatched by Ramanbhai, a long and well-trusted man (servant) of the Hiralal Industries. His conspiracy is exposed by the end of the novel when two sisters, Mikki and Alisha who hate and despise each other in the beginning of the novel, have started liking and doting on each other. It is also the story of the illicit relationships between Hiralal and Leelaben, Mikki and Navin, Mikki and Binny, Alisha and Navin, and Alisha and Dr. Kurien. Shobha De exposes the illicit relations and affairs as well as liaisons among the so called upper class people and the business community. This novel contains sex and sensuality sometimes accompanied by violence. Sex is a divine gift; it cannot be separated from the human life. Sex is the m...

Starry Nights, the second novel of Shobha De, is said be based on real-time Bollywood affairs. Hence the book is also being referred as ‘Bollywood Nights’. The novel was a good success in early 1990’s. As an upshot, it cemented Shobha De’s position in the Indian literature arena as a bold novelist. She is often referred as a bold novelist because she features female characters in her books and sex is something inseparable. The novel was in the limelight because of its Bollywood-oriented theme. This book, some say, has done considerably damage to the reputation of Bollywood stars, for instance, Amitabh Bachan and Rekha and some more star affairs. Aasha Rani and Akshay Arora are the lead protagonists of the story. However, there are many other characters in the book, like Malini – the wife of Akshay, a lesbian journalist, a pimp mother, blood-sucking distributors, producers and actors. Aasha Rani, once a porn star, is a dusky actress who has come from Madras to Bombay to bec...

The Indian society is basically patriarchal where a woman is given the secondary role. The modern woman does not find any sense in such self-sacrifice and yearns for self-expression, individuality and self-identity. She is trying to free herself of the dependence syndrome. Socialite Evenings by Shobha De underlines the picture of the marginalization of Indian women at the hands of their husbands. Simone de Beavoir expresses his own views on man-woman nexus: man represents both the positive and the neutral, as is indicated by the common use of man to designate human beings in general, whereas woman represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria without reciprocity. Shobha has pictured the woman not only as protagonist but also as motivating factors in society. Karuna’s marriage is a failure since it is loveless, joyless and bridgeless. She hates the stand-offish and cruel behavior of the husbands who often kept themselves busy in drab monotonous activities lik...

Shobha De shot into literary limelight by writing her first novel, ‘Socialite Evening’ which is Lawrencium in expression. Her other works which generally start with the letter ‘S’ are, Starry Nights, Sisters, Sultry Days, Strange Obsession, Snapshots,   Second Thoughts, Shooting from the Hips, Small Betrayals, Surviving Men and Speed Post. She founded and edited three popular magazines – Stardust, Society, and Celebrity.   She was a consulting editor to ‘Sunday’ and ‘Megacity’. At present, she is a freelance writer and columnist for several newspapers and magazines. Shobha De is a celebrity novelist, writer, and columnist of India, mainly known for casting female characters and interesting feminism in her books.

Strange Obsession by Shobha De can be converted into a high-drama Bollywood movie. The novel scores well on romance and ecstasy, but eroticism and feminism gallops throughout the book. When Amrita Aggarwal, a fine-looking aspiring model, reaches Mumbai to have a career in the modeling world, she is emotionally abducted by Minx, an ugly lesbian with some high connections in the police. Minx helps her to become the supermodel of India, however, on the other hand Amrita finds herself in an inextricable web. As an upshot, Amrita becomes her sex slave and endures Minx’s torture in order to maintain her growth momentum. However, little did she know that Minx has developed grueling passion for her? When Amrita’s initial struggle to break free meets with an abject failure, she lives a stale life amid such glamorous name and fame. In the company of Minx, Amrita’s life becomes hellish and miserable as she finds no way to attain her freedom. Minx becomes addictive of her body and sees...

Those Pricey Thakur Girls by Anuja Chauhan is drama-packed tale of five daughters named alphabetically. Since all the lead characters of the novel are women: streaks of feminism is high in this novel. Especially from the main character Debjani, often has been referred as Dabbu, is someone who has penchant for larger-than-life male hero for her life. But it does not mean that a guy should be an IIT and IIM. Her taste is different. In this pursuit, she confidently refuses guy after guy until she meets Dylan Singh: half-Christian, half-Rajput. He is an investigative crime journalist, who deftly covers the Sikhs riots of 1984 in Delhi, and is later framed and then sent to jail, which is heartbreaking for quite some time until he comes out. This story brings alive the nostalgias of 1980s and is somewhat redolent of Indian Pride and Prejudice since it has all elements: peppery romance, family allegiance, sense of humour, sibling rivalry, gossiping and of course bitching. The st...

Perseverance Flooded the Streets is a captivating novella by Abbey Seitz about some dark issues that bottleneck the personal and professional growth of poor and socially suppressed Indian women. Though this is the first book of Abbey Seitz, I could feel her mastery of wordsmithing and storytelling. She is a terrific author on the subject pertaining to structural flaws perturbing the much needed growth of the women across the world. The novella basically has two backdrops, Wisconsin, USA, and India. Lovelyn, a twenty-five-year-old graduate student is keen to have some research report on mobility and safety of women in the approaching summer. She applies to various places and somehow gets a response from India. Before moving to India for her work with NGOs, one chilly night she was attacked while out for walk to soothe her seething mind and it was her birthday. Post that attack, she is never the same person. Her ambition to write and research on safety and mobility of women pro...

Mostly, the Indian writers are seen being impelled by Bollywood’s glamour. Thus, books often deal with cheap, lucid, spicy stuff instead of other good things. Raghu is brought up in Mumbai. Being influenced by Bollywood’s activities since early days, he lands up doing journalism for ‘The News’, a popular newspaper. The writer being a part of Bollywood manages to write off his debut novel by highlighting a nub of hidden and unpleasant facts about the Bollywood stars. The book is weighed on providing events and accounting to common audience who perceives Bollywood a something high and elite. Nothing is great about this book, neither the story nor writing. But still the book is placed well among the shelves, for it’s recommended and forwarded by a few personalities like Karan Johar, who himself is a waste in the guise of Bollywood’s glamour. The title is appealing and compels people to browse initial pages to catch up the inside story. The writer lost the way and heads ...

Anita by Renuka Guru is a contemporary fiction with a cross-cultural narrative and with philosophical heaviness. The novel has contemporized the shuttling between two cultures. No one can have a life devoid of cultures, no matter how transgressive is one, in the end everyone needs a semblance of culture to lead somewhat a purposeful and peaceful life. It would be wrong to say that the novel is totally based on Anita. She is some sort of a lead character, but she does not overshadow the auxiliary characters falling under her periphery. Anita hails from a Scottish family . When she was just three-months-old, the cruelty of fate rendered her orphan, and soon she was picked up by an Indian family living in Edinburgh. The Indian family of Ramaa and Gopalan has only one child: Hari, a boy. They are good at heart, but conservative, but still manage to find meaning love and purpose in their lives despite the cold weather and the dull treatment from the white natives in a foreign ...