Carrie Jaisi Koi Nahin?

While initially portrayed as shiny, happy singletons, the show’s characters have, over the past season, become increasingly anxious to move on and waltz down the aisle with The One. The apparent message being that however attractive and successful a woman is in her mid-30s, if she is single and unable to mingle, grievous spinsterhood looms large.

‘‘Everyone wants to be loved,’’ justifies brand consultant Arjun Sahni. ‘‘No one wants to grow old alone and lonely, and the questions the show’s characters continually ask themselves—will we find love? will it last?—are the questions women obsess over across the world.’’

No wonder then that SATC groupies discuss Samantha’s shenanigans over brunch at Barista, clink glasses of Cosmopolitans at SATC theme parties, rent its tapes more times than is entirely healthy, and congregate regularly on http://www.meetup.com to dissect the show with fans in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Allahabad. According to Arun Mehra, owner of a popular DVD store in Bandra, Mumbai, no woman is immune. ‘‘Single women, housewives, college kids, 50-somethings… they all rent the show,’’ he says. ‘‘Some people have borrowed Season 6 twice during a month.’’

And the fact that SATC’s women celebrate, even exploit, freedom almost unimaginable by Indian standards doesn’t deter fans of the show. Visualise Carrie traipsing home from a party as dawn breaks over Manhattan. Then imagine her soul sisters in the Capital attempting similar bravado, and the gulf between their lives is stinging.

‘‘Few Indian women would identify with the high fashions, risque conversations, and the promiscuity on the show,’’ points out Superna Behl*, 25 and a kindergarten teacher in South Mumbai. ‘‘But SATC’s underlying message—that women don’t have to be in a relationship to be professionally successful, financially comfortable, or even to party—is one that appeals to Indian women.’’

Which explains why Mandira Nath, owner of the Bubble Lounge beauty studio in New Delhi, says her husband describes the show as ‘‘junk’’ while she thinks it’s ‘‘something you watch with your girlfriends, because a woman in any part of the world can empathise with the shortage of good men, the tumultuous relationships, and the great sense of humour that the characters use to deal with life’’.

And so, despite its outrageousness, SATC has touched the core of what it means to be a single Indian woman. Is it because at the end of a long day every woman yearns for the fairy tale to rescue her from the coma of singlehood? Like wine after prohibition? Flowers in spring?

Maybe so, but that alone cannot explain why New York has become the Mecca for single, sexy Delhi women; why we all want the clothes, the curls, and best friends who will love us through Botox and babies; or why the most scandalous fashions are being copied by those who feel imitation brings them closer to the show’s characters.

‘‘I see even the most outrageous outfit as something that maybe I can pull off,’’ says Behl, who regularly logs on to http://www.hbo.com to keep up with Season 6. ‘‘And I would kill for a pair of Manolos, Jimmy Choos or Marc Jacobs.’’

But it isn’t only about men and make-up. Sania Singh*, 22, points out that SATC teaches women the importance of keeping the faith, and striving for what they believe is their due. ‘‘Carrie lost Mr Big, then Aidan, then Burgher, all the men she really liked. But she still believes that The One is just around the corner,’’ points out Singh. ‘‘It’s this indefatigable spirit that makes the show an inspiring watch.’’

So, when Carrie says: ‘The only way to true happiness is to live in the moment and not worry about the future’ and writes, ‘Sometimes it’s important to remember a simpler time when the best thing in life was just hanging out, listening to records and having fun with your friends’, she gives 30-somethings on another continent a role model who relishes the instant and refuses to play pack mule.

But SATC is also about decadence, encouraging women to indulge in things they adore. ‘‘One reason the show worked so well was because it doesn’t try to teach you anything, it just encourages you to analyse your own life with the same obsessiveness as the characters,’’ says Sex-o-maniac Ratika Rao, 33.

But despite the spiels on freedom of speech, dress and relationships, not one of the women interviewed for this article wanted to be photographed. Perhaps at the end of the day, freedom means one thing for a fictional character on American television and quite another for the Indian woman watching the show?

But even then, the impact of SATC on Indian women is startling, amusing, and impressive. For a series famous in America for discussing deeds so utterly personal they would make a dominatrix blush, has become a runaway success in India for its simpler lessons: although the price of individuality, courage, and determination may be high, its benefits are too. And that it’s okay to talk to someone other than your mother-in-law; to shop till you see stars; and to date a man only because he’s terribly good-looking.

And lastly, as all smart women secretly know, love is not necessarily the icing on the cake. And if you’re destined to pass that old chestnut by, then Samantha’s style, Miranda’s professional success, Carrie’s inventiveness, and Charlotte’s elegant skulduggery offer Indian women important lessons to aspire to imitate.

After all, someone has to drink all those Cosmopolitans.

* Some names have been changed on request