The Devil wears Prada

In the gurukul system in ancient India, the shishyas, as part of their training, had to perform chores in their guru’s house. So, after years of diligence, if you master the Rig Veda (and with luck the Kamasutra), you would also have added to your résumé the capability to tend cows and if domestically inclined, the skill to lay out a mean buffet of forest fruits and herbs. Lauren Weisberger’s bestseller The Devil Wears Prada, inspired by the author’s stint under Vogue’s Anna Wintour, has a similar theme, with some minor modifications – substitute the thick forests with Manhattan skyscrapers, replace the sacred guru-shishya parampara with a ruthless mistress-slave relationship and most importantly, instead of mastery over the scriptures, there is the learning that eating Tomato soup sprinkled with fattening cheddar cheese is a sure fire way of becoming an outcaste.

Ravi reviews The Devil wears Prada book.