Socialite Evenings: A Mirror Towards Modern Mumbai

There is a popular Indian chronicler who takes the breath of Mumbai to her heart. She is a coveted chronicler of Mumbai and bollywood, with a successful background in modelling. Her letters to the children set a new trend in Indian English literature. She is none other than Shobha De, the celebrity writer who changes the face of Indian novel with her first novel Socialite Evenings.

Socialite Evenings takes the reader through the first person narrative of the protagonist Karuna, a prominent Bombay socialite. Hailed from a conservative middle class Brahmin family, as the youngest of three daughters, Karuna soon starts realizing her deviated path from the prearranged one. The story of Karuna begins here as an aspiring model to the wife a successful businessman to a socialite ad maker to a coveted intellectual celebrity.

Karuna's experiences put light into the lives of present day elite class. There is a representative character from each class in the novel as-Anjali, Ritu and Si as the upper class society women, Babajii as a modern saint, Abe as a businessman, Varun as a high-profile media person, Girish as an art film maker and last but not least Karuna as a celebrity writer.

Out of all the relationships that Karuna narrates in the novel, her relationship with Anjali attains special reference. During her teen days, Anjali becomes the symbol of everything that Karuna wants to become in life. As time passes away, Karuna attains the social status that she always longed for. However, Anjali looms all over her life from the first meeting till she completes her narration.

The central aspect in this novel poses a threatening aspect to the 2000-year-old culture of Indian society. The women in this novel are not the Sati-Savitri types of Indian mythology. They realize their value and dignity as women and how men can rave about them. They are also aware of the inevitable financial security that they have to extract from their present relationships. Finally, they are even ready to call it off as their self-respect gets punched at any instance.

Socialite Evenings is filled with under current autobiographical glimpses of the real author herself. Just like the protagonist Karuna, Shobha De also hailed from a Maharashtrian Saraswat Brahmin family. After making her name as a model, she began a career in journalism. At present she is a freelance writer and columnist for several newspapers and magazines. The novel is apt for an enjoyable reading since the real life narratives make the work closer to the heart.