A 21-year-old from the all-boys (at the time) Indian college, IT 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 e 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.
Vikram Rao is an oddity, an engineer who enjoys writing. His first exposure to this was at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where in his first year he helped found the campus monthly where in his He was recognized at commencement for his column Caricatures. One of his books was dedicated to Campastimes, rather than to a person. His first book was dedicated to his grandmother, a pioneering educator.
To say that Nidhi Pandit has been a joy to work with on illustrations for the book is an understatement in the same league as describing the Beatles as successful musicians. Your grandniece the illustrator of your book; how cool is that? Besides, the book, which had languished for years, got a huge boost from my discovery of Nidhi's talent. And then followed a comfortable partnership. I might well have created a monster. Now, would-be authors in the extended family will be emboldened by access to an excellent illustrator in the family. I ought to write a small monograph on "learning to say no", illustrated, of course.
As the Doors song line goes, a stranger in a new land will be faced with strange behavior. The episode described in If it Moves... was the author's introduction to the stark contrast in sexuality in California in the 1960s to the experience of a 21-year-old from the all-boys (at the time) Indian Institute of Technology in sleepy Madras. The term, culture shock, about defines it. These shocks can range from the essentially pleasant and intriguing, as was this one, to the shocking. But they all share the trait of a feeling of inadequacy. Of a lack of preparedness.
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