I had always considered Shoba De to be a ‘spicy’ writer, writing mostly novels with immoral themes — at least that is the impression I had got reading her book reviews. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I read her book ‘Speed Post’.
This is a collection of letters that she had written to her six children – all of different ages, from toddlers to the early 20s. To the elder ones, she conveys the messages of importance of relationships, while to the younger ones, she conveyed the importance of family bonding, rules in the house and use of electronics.
The ethics she conveyed through those letters and the kind of independent views she expressed were wonderful. The messages to the children were age appropriate and despite developing independent and a Western way of thinking, she still instilled the importance of Indian values and family system.
I read this book when I was pregnant with my twins in 2002 and was very much in love with my niece and nephew, who were 12 and 9 years respectively then. I waited for them to be a little older and then gifted this book to them, conveying that this book has messages that, more or less, I would like to convey to them as an aunt.
After having read that book, I read a few others by De, the ones about her experiences with journalism and her profession, her autobiography. They were all wonderful. I am yet to read a work of fiction by her.
— The reader is a finance professional based in Dubai.
