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NEW!
From Harper Collins Publishing buy the book: infibeam | indiaplaza buy it outside of india: nbc india Testimonials About My Two Indias Appearances FAQS Reviews/Press Author Photos/Cover Image Contact |
"Mitra
Kalita provides an incisive perspective on globalization and the unique
challenge India faces in educating its youth." - Rajendra S. Pawar,
Chairman, NIIT "Mitra Kalita writes with style and clarity, offering an outsider’s account with an insider’s access." - Vir Sanghvi, columnist and commentator My Two Indias: A Journey to the Ends of Opportunity By S. Mitra Kalita, Harper Collins India 2010 What is government’s role in an economy? What is its obligation to its people, rich and poor? Why do managers struggle to find talent even as millions around them are desperate to land jobs? What values get left behind when a country makes itself over? These are among the many questions facing India today--and they are the questions that guide "My Two Indias: A Journey to the Ends of Opportunity," a new book by award-winning journalist and author S. Mitra Kalita. In the fall of 2006, Mitra moved from the US to India to help launch a business newspaper in Delhi. She was thirty years old, the same age as her father when he made the opposite migration across the Atlantic. My Two Indias takes readers on a journey with Mitra and her family into the India of old and new. She and her artist husband quickly enter the elite of Delhi society, joining a cast of characters from CEOs to cross-dressing curators. They embrace India’s mad rush toward free-market reform. Government is mocked as useless, clumsily invading and disrupting daily life. But beyond the newsrooms and boardrooms of Delhi, another economic reality looms in Mitra’s home state of Assam, a state in a forgotten corner of India embroiled in militancy and unrest. On regular visits, relatives’ pleas for jobs, advice and guidance underscore an India tragically bypassed by the boom. As she grows closer to her family in this neglected region, their very different lives and expectation of government confuse and exasperate Mitra, as do their expectations of her. Yet somehow, those who have been most abandoned manage a deeper belief in their democracy than those who have benefited. Gradually, exasperation turns to understanding and appreciation. And after months of lecturing Indians on US-style efficiency, Mitra unexpectedly learns how American workers, companies and innovation might actually be lagging themselves. In the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks on Assam and Mumbai in late 2006, Mitra finds a populace consumed with redefinition, frustrated with elements of government but still largely supportive of its over-arching reach into their daily lives. My Two Indias lucidly reconciles the many faces of India: separate, unequal, inextricably dependent. Mitra, now back in the US as a senior writer at The Wall Street Journal, deftly marries her personal story with the broader economic tale of modern India. In chapters that artfully move from the living room to the newsroom, the call centre to the factory floor, her grandfather’s village to her grandmother’s deathbed, Mitra’s reflections on two years in India are part-love letter and part-damning critique. Among other themes, Mitra touches on manufacturing and labour laws, education systems, gender roles and the workplace. This is a book about what it means to be an American, an Indian, a working woman, and a global citizen in the new economic order. back to top APPEARANCES Mitra is available for book readings and lectures. Please email smkalita@gmail.com for more details. 1/29/11 Evanston, Illinois Keynote speaker, Kellogg India Business Conference 2011: ‘Role of Media and Entertainment in Modern India’ 2/10/11 Trickle Up, fireside chat on "Two Indias" 3/1/11and 3/2/11 Donald W. Reynolds Foundation Distinguished Visitng Fellow Washington and Lee University Lexington, Va. 3/3/11 New York, N.Y. Tie-NY conference New York, NY Frequently Asked Questions (Journalists, feel free to quote liberally from this) Q. Tell us about this book. A. There is an old India. There is a new India. And there is the place they transition, clash, morph, meet. I’d like to think of this book as that meeting point. I focus on the Indias and Indians encountered by my family and me between 2006 and 2008. Q. Why did you write this book? A. I had been tinkering for years with a book on the Indian economy and struggled with how to tell it. Initially, I approached it similar to my first book with a hunt for subjects; and that’s how I met many of the people and companies who end up appearing in this work. But as I went along, I grew self-conscious of being an outsider trying to tell the definitive story of such a vast, diverse country. So I haven't -- the book is intentionally called MY two Indias, focusing on the slices of what I saw, experienced, lived, loathed, loved. I didn’t set out to write about myself or my family but through a column I wrote for Mint—called Wider Angle—I began experimenting with marrying reportage to my reactions. Not everyone loved that reaction, mind you, but my columns sparked a dialogue, drew readers and allowed us to dissect change as it was occurring. Like many books, mine was partly driven by a burning question: How can it be that as a manager in Delhi, I struggled to find and make the right hires, yet every night would be deluged with phone calls from Assam begging me for a job? I set out to find the answer and reconcile these two Indias I straddle, that so many workers and migrants in an urbanizing will find familiar. Q. Is this a memoir? A. This book is hardly my whole life's story, or even that of my family. I approached it as narrative nonfiction, where our journey is shared and contextualized with the reader. I often take a step back to more critically examine anecdotes and offer research and statistic to keep me honest. I also rely greatly on many other characters, such as the folks at Cvent and Cotton Kids. Q. Tell us about those other characters. A. I began interviewing many of them before my family and I even left for India. Companies such as Cvent allowed me to look at the global economy more tightly through the lens of a workplace and workers trying to understand each other across different sectors, cultures and time zones. Other workers and subjects, especially the youth quoted, I met through reporting for Mint, the business newspaper I worked for in India. Q. How much did you rely on your Mint columns for this book? A. Quite a bit. The column, in many ways, was a diary of our journey, although I had the same allergy to writing in the first person in its early days. Slowly, it became clear that the personal resonated with readers. Q. In what way? Do you identify as Indian or American, a New Yorker, a Delhi-ite or Assamese or...? A. Well, that's just what I mean. There's a scene in the book where my husband and I are at Mainland China, and a fellow diner is rolling her eyes at my American accent. A few moments later, my great-aunt is calling me telling me about a wedding in our village and how tasty the pigeon curry was. I'm not so easy to box. I was born in the US and so when I got to India, that made me a firang, so-called phoren. But my experience before 2006, when we moved, was largely in rural and second-tier India because my family is from Assam. Few of my relatives had phones, fridges, cars before the late 1990s, even into the 2000s. My maternal and paternal families lived in extended families until very recently. In many ways, their expectations of me (and each other) remained rooted in the Indian village--which could be at odds with our fast life in the city. India, to me, is filled with these collisions. I see myself a product of that, and so don't really identify as one or the other but a mix of them all. Q. How did your view of government change while living in India? A. It's complicated and took an entire book to explore but ... the simple answer is that in my early days in India, I cursed the babus, the bribes, the bureacracy. By the end of our time there, I sympathized a bit more with the sheer challenge of running India, and devised a metaphor in coming to terms with my family's expectations of me with the average Indian's expectations of government... The global recession certainly affected my outlook, too; leaders such as Manmohan Singh who advocated salary caps during boom years were suddenly seen as ahead of their time… It remains to be seen if the scandals embroiling this government of late will truly be a catalyst for more change, though. Q. Do you miss India? A. Every day. And to understand why we left, read the book! Q. Who is your audience? A. As I wrote, I pictured the manager, the CEO, the returnee, the middle-class family living in South Delhi. And I pictured my cousins, first-time college attendees, the cybercafé crowd, folks in second, third, no tier India. I hope they all pick this up. back to top REVIEWS & PRESS A Mail Today "pick of the week" "It's a wonderful journey through India, part memoir, part rediscovery... An absolutely splendid book." - NDTV's Sunil Sethi, host of "Just Books" See the NDTV video clip here. "Mitra beautifully juxtaposes her personal story with the broader economic story of India." - The Hindu Read the full review here. "..energetic memoir. ...Kalita writes with reasonable verve and displays flashes of wry humour..." - Mint back to top |
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