Of friendship and more...

Book Talk

It’s friendship and all aspects connected to it that Jaishree Misra’s has expounded in her latest book, Secrets and Lies, that was launched in a city store last week. Dedicating the book to her childhood chum Kubra, Jaishree said that she wove the story around four school friends who remained connected right through even after they were married and even after they got busy with their own lives. The four characters, Anita, Zeba, Bubbles, and Sam’s friendship have remained intact for over 20 years.

A friendship born out of their years at a girls’ school in Delhi in the early 1990s. Beautiful, intelligent and secretive, they were the top clique, the girls everyone wanted to impress until the arrival of 15-year-old Lily D’ Souza who instantly threatened their superiority.
Now, Anita, Sam and Bubbles live in London. Bubbles is the pampered but bored wife of a billionaire, Anita is a top journalist working for the BBC, Sam tries hard to be a trophy wife for her corporate lawyer husband.

Zeba remained in India, and now lives a life of unimaginable luxury as the reigning Bollywood queen. Coming together for a school reunion, the women must confront a secret that has haunted their lives. Jaishree in conversation with author Anita Nair said that the book was conceived and inspired partly from personal experience. “People can easily relate to the characters in the  book,” averred Jaishree and added, “each of my characters have grown out of personal experiences. Each character has its own distinct qualities. I stress on Indian characters on an international setting.”

During the book reading, Jaishree introduced Anita, Sam, Zeba and Bubbles. In her book, Jaishree also gives the reader a peek into the dark and not so pleasant moments that each of the characters go through together and separately in their lives.

Almost resembling a chicklit, one wonders what would inspire men to pick up the book? Jaishree says with a twinkle in her eyes, “Zeba Khan is the reigning Bollywood queen. She could motivate men to buy the book. And she’s in a very special bathtub scene for the men.”