Waiting to belong at Belonging's launch

Delhi has a must-attend event next week. After reading the blurb and some pages of Sonia Gandhi's 544-pg memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, and forwarding key passages already tweeted, the real bragging right is not reading the book but being seen at its Nov 16 launch. Unlike most book launches, with earnest questions, plonk and kebabs, this one will require a little more than literary curiosity since the guest list is being personally curated by the publisher and the author's family. It is understood that no SIR documentation will be needed.

Invitation is more valuable than the book itself. The gathering is sure to bring together Delhi's political creme de la creamy layer that no longer share drawing rooms or official programmes. Gandhi, not being from the reigning Parivar these days, should draw guests from the political, bureaucratic, journalistic classes, not to mention culturati, who have not ventured too much this side of the fence. The city's elaborate social grammar will be on display: look familiar, but not overeager; informed, but not too invested. A little political ambiguity will certainly help. Launch of Belonging may offer space in that ephemeral zone that is neither establishment nor anti-establishment. In the national capital, belonging has always been a feeling. Being seen belonging will be a social coup for so many.