Kashyap Deorah, IITian and Returning Indian Entrepreneur,  with a yen for start ups from his college days through to his sojourn in Silicon Valley is now back to his roots in hometown, Bombay. Here are his views on 'Maximum City - Bombay Lost and Found', a 542 page tome by New York based journalist and writer, Suketu Mehta. More »

By Vidya Pradhan

It has always been a puzzle why American schools cannot replicate the dominance and the reputation for excellence demonstrated by American universities. US students have always performed rather shamefully compared to students from other countries. In an international math assessment of 15 year olds in 2003, American students came 29th out of 34 places. The outrage reports like these have generated was the driving motivator for the No Child Left Behind(NCLB) act, President Bush’s accountability-laden education policy unveiled just a year after he took office.

Linda Perlstein, who has been covering the education beat for the Washington Post for several years, decided to spend a year with an elementary school in Maryland to study the impact of NCLB on the school system. What emerges is a gripping tale of heroism, sacrifice and uncommon bravery on the part of the principal, teachers and staff of Tyler Elementary as they attempt to deal with the new standards and punitive threats that NCLB brings in its wake. More »

By Rohini Mohan

Sunil Lala is a self published NRI author. American Khichdi is a collection of his musings in which he explores the life of the Desi who lives in America. From our obsession for Bollywood to our double standards when it comes to accepting our adopted culture, from the birth of an ABCD to the shock of the death of a loved one in a strange land, from life in India to the Khichdi that life is outside India; the book waxes eloquent on each of these varied topics. More »

By Rohini Mohan

Set in Afghanistan from start to finish without straying into the immigrant experience, Khaled Hosseini’s new book, ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ is reminiscent of Rohinton Mistry’s ‘A Fine Balance’. Richly developed characters and a solid storyline set against the backdrop of the turbulent events that have rocked the country, it is a tale of troubled people living in troubled times. Often when an author’s very first book is a runaway success, the second, while breathlessly awaited, ends up being a huge disappointment. Not so with this one. The heart wrenching, intricately woven story telling and the strong splendid characters are now trademark Hosseini. More »

By Vidya Pradhan

Curry has to be the most misunderstood and most misused word in the food lexicon. Even in South India, where the word first originated as ‘kari’, it could mean a dry vegetable dish or meaty gravy. And of course, the British have adopted it for their very own in a form that is probably unrecognizable to most Indians. Author Lizzie Collingham traces the evolution of British ‘Curry’ from the time of the Mughals to its various avatars in the early days of British and Portuguese occupation in India. In her epicurean voyage, she discovers that there is no such thing as an authentic Indian meal. Indian food as we know it today is a product of our history of occupation and the fusion of various traditions brought in by the many nations that sought to conquer us.

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