Insatiable ~ Shobhaa De (37 of 2024)

 

"'I promise not to be three things--profound, pedantic and pretentious,' says Shobhaa De, as she begins her heart-warming book.

It's a promise India's most beloved writer delivers on in her irreverent memoir about the year leading up to her landmark seventy-fifth birthday. Quintessential exuberance and keen observations firmly in place, she tells us about travelling solo, feasting (and fasting) with family and friends, the triumphs and losses that accompany ageing, the vagaries and vulnerabilities of being a writer and, above all, how food connects people in the most unexpected places and delightful ways.

From where to find the most delicious lassi in Jaipur, her obsession with kasundi and conversations with a Nobel Laureate who is a gourmet to M.F. Husain's last food khwaish and what's served at Aamir Khan's dinner table, Shobhaa takes us into the dining rooms of politicians, artists and celebrities, to festivals and parties and other social events, and, more privately, into her home, where food is always the prime subject of conversation.

In Insatiable, Shobhaa reminds us of the many delights and disappointments that the banquet of life offers, even as she examines the shared emotional hunger for happiness and love that binds us all.  "

It is her breezy style of writing, with humour the way we talk, a mix of English and Hindi and things we face in life, that keep us going especially when we are reading it with our girl gang.  Else one might ask, why should I spend my team reading about the life of high society socialite. 

She speaks about her children Arundhati De, Avantika Kilachand, Aditya Kilachand, Anandita De , and husband Dilip De - how they are her centre. Their watsapp group and chats. 

The book has multiple instances where we can see how the spouses Mr. and Mrs. Dey have given each other individual space.

The author is a self-proclaimed and visible foodie who engages various emotions with the food she eats. She is a Maharashtrian married to a Bengali family. However, her cuisines and food experiences are not limited to these two states.

The author with her cosmopolitan life introduces the readers to various cuisines that many of us would not dream to try. The author has deftly shown us how letting go can save relations. 

We feel that her career was by default and not design, she was not very ambitious but adventurous who love good life.