DUBAI Kiran Chhabria needs no introduction in Dubai. As director of the Jumbo Group which her illustrious father Manu Chhabria established, she is well known in the world of electronic business and marketing. Avid readers also know she has a flair for writing, thanks to her breezy blogs and columns published in local newspapers.
Homegrown writer
But the “huge gadget nut”, as she calls herself, says writing a book was never on her agenda. So when she speaks about her maiden release Kitty in the City at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai on March 10, it will be a refreshing take from a homegrown writer, complete with the frills that come with a high-profile life in a fast-paced city.
The book’s 35-year-old protagonist, Kiki Chawla, is a billionaire heiress in Dubai, “navigating through men, calories and Shaikh Zayed Road”. But despite having everything going for her, she is utterly confused around men and matters of the heart.
Ask the 38-year-old Kiran if the book is in any way autobiographical, and she says: “It is a work of fiction - a week-long journey of a woman who seeks to find love but stumbles and finds herself. In a lot of ways, I did go through that journey.”
In her book’s acknowledgements, she talks about the novel being a remedy for a heartbreak. “I decided to write this book to cheer myself up after a man broke my heart, and thus “Kitty”, my alter ego, was born. Should I thank him for his doings? I don’t know. But the bloke surely deserves a mention for getting my creative juices flowing.”
Be that as it may, the 175-page paperback makes for a fascinating read with the author’s sense of humour evidently coming through.
Kiran, who put the book together in just one month, says: “I had heard so much about the various methods of writing. But when I sat down to write the book, none of that mattered. Characters just popped up on page and said hello.”
So will there be a sequel? “Yes,” says Kiran, but adds she has no idea how it will pan out.
