Author Description

A 21-year-old from the all-boys (at the time) Indian college, IIT Madras, arrived at Stanford University in 1965. He was immediately confronted with the sexually permissive milieu, presumptions of Indian mysticism and conspicuous alcohol consumption, that was California in the sixties. Cultural assimilation had begun. His nomadic childhood in India, punctuated by parental moves every three years, had armed him with the tools of assimilation, because India is a culturally diverse sub-continent masquerading as a country. Following the embrace of the “left coast,” he was often a stranger to disparate settings. But not for long. On the first day of a job on the east coast, he ran the gauntlet of a rite of passage into the industry. This, and other tales, comprise the book, a lighthearted collection of vignettes, most with the underlying theme that differences are to be understood, absorbed and even celebrated. Thematic departures are capitulations to whimsy about areas such as organic gardening and an alternative take that Dickens’ Scrooge’s meanness was a contrived brand developed as part of a long-term plan.