“If you have bought/borrowed/shoplifted this book in the hopes of finding out the secret behind Kareena’s glowing complexion or what Bhai really meant when he talked about the difference between nepotism and eugenics, this is not the book for you.”
First, let me start by saying how much I loved the title itself! Being an avid reader and collector of memoirs I would have picked this one up sooner or later and I am glad that it happened sooner! We have all seen Soha the actor; this book goes behind the screen and introduces us to Soha not as Saif’s sister or as Sharmila Tagore’s daughter, but as Soha the person. She has this ability to laugh at herself and writes these self-deprecating anecdotes with such ease and light wit. Reading this book was like eating a slice of cake; there was no way I was going to stop till I finish the last of the crumbs.
The family’s royal status is no news, but what was it like growing up as a modern day princess, as she likes to call it? Soha reflects on these memories through the endearing essays on her parents. Those little moments and banter she wrote about her parents were occasionally relatable. With some insight on her father’s remarkable cricket career and her mother’s as an actress breaking barriers in her time. I found myself discussing these more with my dad – being a cricket enthusiast and a movie buff; he had a few facts and stories of his own to share.
An instance where Soha parallels her mundane routine on a non-work day - that involves her browsing through Netflix for an appropriate day time show to watch and at some point bonding with her dog and ordering food - to her grandmother’s routine - as a young princess reading the Quran and taking Persian and riding lessons and back to bed by 8; completely cracked me up.
Soha writes about her life before she became an actor. Her time at Balliol, Oxford as a student trying to carve her own niche. How traveling was big part of her and molded her as a person. Be it hitchhiking from London to Paris and or bunking in a stranger’s hut in the Sahara Desert. Moving cities and countries and ultimately landing in a place she calls home.
Her journey as an actor, quitting a corporate job to join the industry, had its own waves of rises and falls, leading to doing some notable work and creating a place of her own. Having met her husband on one of these sets, when she signed a movie opposite a young well-built boy, who she couldn’t imagine talking to about anything else other than protein shakes. Something that might have began as comical and awkward matured into a lovely family.
Furthermore, she taps into the ridiculous trend of “trolling” on social media. When she was trolled for wearing a sari or for merely sharing her opinion on a current event. Just downright bringing it to a new low of ‘how can actresses have an opinion.’ “There are times, however, when the character limitation on Twitter does not allow for a mature and considered reaction.”
Certainly relished the tales of love and travel – both the journeys so incredibly portrayed. The ones of family and loss were simply warm and beautifully written. Her paternal side being a family of royal heritage, whereas her maternal side, as we all know the Tagore’s have a long line of artists, I think Soha inherited a bit of both worlds. She brings a sense of normalcy and breeziness to her writing and storytelling, which was refreshing. Definitely need more of the writer Soha.