A De in Hong Kong

Purveyors of the light fantastic that is Bollywood would have seen a very familiar face in Central yesterday as Shobhaa De, 63, India’s most famous columnist and author was seen around town after a very bumpy flight from Mumbai.

“There’s something in the air in Hong Kong, it’s electrifying,” says De. “We love coming here. My husband Dilip wanted to be here for the Christie’s watch auction and asked me to join him for a quick sojourn. Hong Kong has been very lucky for him, and right in time for Chinese New Year, it’s been great.”

While shipping tycoon and industrialist Dilip De was at Christie’s making his winning bid on a coveted watch, his famous missus hit the town as Armani Exchange, Shanghai Tang and the teeming lanes in Central filled with bargain deals all saw and felt De’s presence.

“We’ve been coming to Hong Kong on and off for decades as we have friends old – and young – in town. Strangely, I feel at home here, many of the lanes seem familiar, the faces and people, the buzz, it is a city driven by ambition, you can see it in the way people walk on the streets, they are on the move constantly, no dilly-dallying around.”


Writing three weekly columns, scripting an Indian soap opera, having had her own talk-show, churning out a book a year (with 15 to her credit) on average and being a mother of six, it’s a miracle the woman has time to breath, let alone get a hair-cut. So off she trotted down to the basement of Princes Building for a quick cut too.

Between snips, she says, “Food, fashion, finance. I see all three here in spades. You know what the big difference is between ladies here and in Mumbai is? The comfort and ease with which they wear Western and Eastern clothes. The body language is there, the confidence is there. As India gets more modernized and the stars and starlets wear their Chanels and LVs, they don’t know what to do with their arms and legs. So it never looks right in pictures. Here, they know how to strut – and they have the figures for it!”

A woman who does nothing in half-measure, between shopping and a coif, she had breakfast at the Island Shangri-La, high-tea at 4 seasons, drinks at Sevva with husband Dilip and a very late dinner at, er, Tsui Wah, in Central.

“I loved it! Great food and a flavour of the city,” said De. “Hong Kong is a gourmet destination and perhaps only second to Bangkok – by a slim margin – when it comes to five-star service. A hotel chain-restaurant is the same in any city of the world, like cookie-cutter deluxe hotels are, and my favourite meal so far has been at Tsui Wah. We looked at what others were ordering and went with it. Mr De and I thoroughly enjoyed the noodles, prawns and the milk bread.”

Notorious for her critical eye in her prolific career as a social commentator and critic, this past year, she had to face the wrath of many-a-misbegotten actor. Most of Bollywood was all a’twitter as Indian celebrities text’d their ire rather vituperatively on De as her columns came out. “Indian stars can be such big babies,” she laughs. “I am entitled to my opinion and I express it.”

And how!

Text and images by P.Ramakrishnan






Notes:
Oh my - I get a plug in Shobhaa De's blog! wowsa.