Double Bill

Magnificent gin-drinker Paro, heroic temptress, glides like an exotic bird of prey through the world of the rich in Bombay and Delhi. She lives life recklessly, caring about nothing and nobody. Not even Priya, eternal voyeur and diarist, who views this femme fatale with wonder, trepidation and jealousy?until she comes into her own. Two unforgettable women bring a glittering, toxic world of power, money and greed to life, with the scandalous cult classic Paro: Dreams of Passion. Priya: Take Two continues this ride through a world best viewed through a glass of Scotch, as Priya battles social vertigo and learns lessons in survival on her spirited journey to the top.
Published in 1984 and 2011 respectively, Paro and Priya remain incisive and witty commentaries on the movers and shakers of the business and power capitals, invoking all the contradictions of urban India. Namita Gokhale’s pioneering debut and its sequel span a generation and an era, moving from the eighties to the post-millennial Indian society. Wicked, hilarious and utterly amusing, with echoes of Dorothy Parker ringing through their vigorous prose, for the first time the two novels come together in one classic volume, taking the liberated, brazen and all-too human Paro and her natural counterpart, the more timorous Priya, to new readers and old.