Ihave always found Shobhaa De quite different from her public image. Most think she is haughty and unapproachable, with an unbearably high opinion of herself. And I think she is almost an introvert or ‘reticent’ as she prefers to call herself. People think she is frivolous because she wrote openly about sex and other taboo topics when it was considered to be a sacrilege to talk about them, forget writing a series of novels. Her being vociferous about everything under the Sun has been taken as her arrogance to think ‘she knows everything’. I find her affectionate.

The best part — she has never cared about what anyone thinks! To her, only what her immediate family thinks matters. “They are my censor board — my husband and my children. If I were to preoccupy myself with what the rest of the

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