'I promise not to be three things--profound, pedantic and pretentious.'
'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.
'Shobhaa De has been fearless, frank, direct, straightforward, explicit, unambiguous and unvarnished, both as a person and a celebrated journalist and writer! Insatiable--her voracious and unquenchable thirst for more could not have been better described than the title of her book. May the accolades for her endeavour never end!'
--Amitabh Bachchan
'I grew up reading Shobhaa De's columns in newspapers. She exposed me to a new way of seeing the world. Then, years later, I met her. First as a fan. Then as her friend. And I still read her, enjoying the way she explains the world to me: rooted, grounded, yet adventurous and fun.'
--Devdutt Pattanaik
'Shobhaa De is a phenomenon. She is not just insatiable, she's completely unstoppable, and as this chatty, witty, perky book shows, she remains one of the most vivacious writers at work in India today.'
--William Dalrymple
