In the Amrikan version, Shiva wears pink goggles

The author, Sarah MacDonald, is an Australian. The Australian version of the book just had an image of Shiva on its cover. “How boring” the marketing folks thought when it was introduced to them in the US and A. In the US and A, we setup coffee shops on every street corner, create a neat logo, hype it up and sell a $0.40 drink for $4.00. We take $5 canvas shoes, add a swoosh and sell them for $50. Its marketing and capitalism at it best.

So how do we sell above mentioned book with a boring picture of Shiva? Who will buy yet another book on the mystical east that India is? Add a pink motif to the book and adorn Shiva with pink goggles!!!!

That image is exactly what prompted me to pick up this book and browse through it over a cup of $4.00 coffee at the local B&N bookstore. Proof that marketing works. At first glance it seems like the book was written to be extremely critical about India and anything about the Indian way of life.

It’s hard not to judge the book that way when the generalizations flow freely in the first 10 pages itself. Here’s a sampling (from memory):
” ………. all the drivers had one finger on a horn and another one up their nostrils ….. “

But it was probably meant to be that way because the author hated India on her first visit but then gradually grew accustomed to the Indian lifestyle over the duration of her next visit.

An editorial review:

From Booklist:
Australian MacDonald didn’t fall in love with India her first time there, at age 21. So when her boyfriend, Jonathan, a reporter for ABC, is sent there for work, she reluctantly follows after a year of separation. At first, life in India is as bad as she remembered it–overcrowded, smoggy, disturbing. A serious bout of pneumonia puts her in an Indian hospital, but as she recovers, she begins to make friends in India and to understand the culture. She finds herself attending lavish Indian weddings and trying to comfort her friend Padma, whose mother commits suicide after Padma marries without her permission. MacDonald makes an effort to understand the many diverse religions of the area, including taking a 10-day sojourn in a Buddhist temple and discussing religion with Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and even a group of visiting Israelis. With Jonathan, she takes a trip to war-torn Kashmir, an area that is at once achingly beautiful and devastatingly dangerous. A lively, snappy travelogue. Kristine Huntley

I will admit I could not finish the book but that has more to do with the lack of time, courtesy house guests, and me being too cheap to actually purchase this book. Amardeep Singh, on the other hand, has actually read, taught, reviewed and dissected the book, “Holy Cow”. Sarah has also pissed off some Parsi folks bigtime with controversial remarks on the “Tower of Silence“.

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