Dhandha, meaning business, is a term often used in common trade parlance in India. But there is no other community that fully embodies what the term stands for than the Gujaratis.
Shobha Bondre’s Dhandha is the story of a few such Gujaratis: Jaydev Patel—the New York Life
Insurance agent credited with having sold policies worth $2.5 billion so far; Bhimjibhai Patel—one of
the country’s biggest diamond merchants and co-founder of the ambitious ‘Diamond Nagar’ in Surat;
Dalpatbhai Patel—the motelier who went on to become the mayor of Mansfield County; Mohanbhai
Patel—a former Sheriff of Mumbai and the leading manufacturer of aluminium collapsible tubes; and
Hersha and Hasu Shah—owners of over a hundred hotels in the US.
Travelling across continents—from Mumbai to the United States—in search of their story and the
common values that bond them, Dhandha showcases the powerful ambition, incredible capacity for
hard work, and the inherent business sense of the Gujaratis.
About The Author:
Shobha Bondre is a celebrated and much-published Marathi writer. She has been writing for the last 25 years and has published 13 books, many of them bestsellers that have gone into over 25 editions.
The non-Marathi reading world is now keen to read her works and her books are being translated into English, Hindi, and Gujarati. She has written articles, short stories, and columns for prestigious publications like the Maharashtra Times, Loksatta, Lokprabha, Maher, Kirloskar, etc. She has also written dialogues for many popular Marathi TV serials like Abhalmaya, Manasi, Oon Paaus, and Ardhangini.
In the last few years, personality profiles of people from various walks of life has become Shobha’s forte. For this, she interacts closely with her subjects, understanding them in their social, familial, emotional, and economic settings. She has won many literary awards for her work, including the Maharashtra State Award for Best Novel in 1997, for Saata Samudrapar.
