BS Prakash, the Indian ambassador in Brazil, is an unusual diplomat as the blurb on this book suggests but not just for the reasons mentioned (degrees in physics and philosophy and joining the Indian Foreign Service for “livelihood reasons”). Instead, if you go through Clueless in America, one of the first things that will strike you about the author is his candour and humour — his ability to not take himself or the world around seriously — so unique in a senior “Indian government functionary”.
The book essentially recaptures a series of posts that Prakash did for Rediff.com after finding himself in San Francisco as consul general, a “Super A” posting in the foreign service lingo, as he tells us in the first piece itself, patiently explaining the “law of karma” that works such things in the service more as a rule than exception. The first post sets the tone for all the subsequent ones. Prakash shows that he is undiplomatic, digressive, quirky and irreverent — all the traits that never did harm anyone, least of all an aspiring writer.
Prakash also comes across as a keen observer of human nature so that the characters he sketches have a knack of coming alive for us — including himself, a bumbling Indian at a baseball game so intrinsic to the American way of life. He is also given to philosophic questioning — no doubt because of his interest and study in philosophy — and ponders issues such as “What it means to be an American?” (The answers, he finds, are guns, distrusting the government and avoiding taxes), “The mind in a burger”, understanding McDonald’s and how it stands for everything American, and so forth. Finally, here’s a diplomat who also has a turn for dialogue. Sample this:
“‘Red or White?’ asked the blonde waitress with her faint East European accent… ‘Black label with soda and ice,’ said my companion smoothly… ‘Red or white please?’ asked the waitress somewhat confused and impatient… ‘Red is alright if you don’t have Black… These days I go for Blue Label actually.’” That may be a cliched portrait of the bumbling Indian but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t still very much true and Prakash sketches it deftly indeed.
On the whole, this one is a witty take on life in the US, a comic sitcom almost as it were featuring Indians, Americans, and Indian-Americans. Pick this up if you are going to that country… and even if you aren’t.
CLUELESS IN CALIFORNIA
AMERICA IN BITS AND BYTES
BS Prakash
Konark
Pages 213
Rs 195
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Secrets of the kitchen folk
Kicked out of three schools, Carl Muller never went to university. He joined the Royal Ceylon Navy instead, dabbled in advertising briefly, became a journalist and a pianist and, of course, finally turned prize-winning author. In the early nineties, he brought out the first of his “Burgher novels”, The Jam Fruit Tree, that won him several fans and much recognition. His latest, Maudiegirl... is in the same vein — the story of a matriarch, a Burgher woman of old, presiding over her kitchen, family and the community, supreme in her home-brewed wisdom.
Muller’s the kind of writing that brings alive the mundane and the everyday in all its exotic detail and should you want to experience such a slice of life, pick this up. But this book may also be thumbed through by the foodies amongst you, not particularly given to exotic living because, unusually enough for a work of fiction, it also presents real, workable recipes of its protagonist, Maudiegirl.
“Nobody — and the whole of Boteju Land agreed — could cook like Maudiegirl,” we are told. We are given flavourful recipes for the likes of turkey and mutton broth, brown mushroom sauce, Dutch sauce and even gingerbread pudding to substantiate that! And these are no fictional recipes. Muller tells us in the foreword that these belonged to his grandmother. He inherited them as a 10 year old and has now put them to good use — by sharing them with us. Flavourful fiction.
MAUDIEGIRL AND THE VON BLOSS KITCHEN
Carl Muller
Penguin
287 Pages
Rs 299
