When Shobhaa De, the high priestess of adult fiction, decided to write her first novel for teenagers, we couldn't resist reading between the lines
When Shobhaa De, the high priestess of adult fiction, decided to write her first novel for teenagers, we couldn't resist reading between the lines
In her blog, Shobhaa De confessed to feeling "deliciously nervous" before every book launch. Strange, coming from one of India's biggest selling authors (16 books and counting) in English. That's probably because her latest, S's Secret, is an uncluttered tale about 14 year-old Sandhya, a departure from fast-paced thrillers. On the eve of her book release, FYI got the author to indulge in some plain speak. 
Why kids, we asked. "They are starved of reading material that's written for them. It was a void waiting to be filled. Even when I was a teenager, I longed to read stories about my life, my experiences, my anxieties, my feelings. Instead, I had to read alien stuff about little girls at public schools in England. Today's urban India tweens have very little to fall back on besides Barbie and friends," Shobhaa explains.
Approaching this new age group was a challenge all right, "...but it was also very exciting. Reaching out to tweens is pretty difficult. I had to crawl into their minds and hearts, decode their special lingo, and in general access their world to create Sandhya's universe. I believe I have succeededu00a0-- which is a huge compliment since it has come from tweens themselves," says Shobhaa.
Talk veered towards the manuscript, and she says it was natural that her experiences as a mother came in handy. "Having raised a large family, with four daughters, the mother in me was at the book's forefront. I bounced a few things off my kids, but I prefer total privacy when I write."
The characters and content came as a pleasant surprise to them. In fact, her kids and family members have featured in all her books, in one way or the other, she reveals.
Her latest protagonist Sandhya, is loosely based on her daughter Arundhati, who was unhappy with her name for a long time. "Today, she is a little more comfortable with it. There is a lot of Arundhati in Sandhya. But my youngest daughter Anandita, who inspired Pia, likes to think of herself as my main muse!" Shobhaa adds. And finally in case you haven't figured, she continues her love affair with the letter 'S'u00a0-- "That's right.... the S-fixation rules," she laughs.
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S's Secret by Shobhaa De, published by Popular Prakashan, is available at leading bookstores for Rs 95.
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