'WHEN all else fails we pull out Gandhi,' the baritone of ad man Suhel Seth rang out as he read from Shobhaa De's latest offering 'Superstar India: From Incredible To Unstoppable'.

Seth's choice of a few sporadic sentences were enough to get the juices of a packed hall flowing.

It brings on the nodding of heads at a star-studded launch of De's new book at the Taj Mahal Hotel in South Mumbai, on a sultry Saturday evening.

The book, in the author's words, is a 'a passionate love letter to the most beautiful country in the world'.

For De, the book is the thread that binds her life to that of the country where she has spent six 'crowded' decades.

"This is a story about India. My India. It is a very personal story," she says.

It is a bird's eye view of the country that captures many images and as the author points out, for every truism about India, the opposite is also true.

Photographs: Krsna Mehta