Indian People Smell like Rice and Curry
Love the fact that I received an email with the subject: Indian People Smell like Rice and Curry!
I was so curious! I thought it was a joke! That is, until I found out it was a book, written by Indian American, Leena Ceraveeni.
Indian Americans have to deal with people who tell them they smell like rice and curry. Indian Americans have been asked if they know the Indian people who work at the gas station down the street. If Indian people would eat the cow they wouldn’t starve.
Leena Ceraveeni’s debut novel, The Hometown, documents the racial experiences of an Indian girl born and raised in Indiana. Each chapter of The Hometown focuses on a different racial experience when 23-year-old Mala Thomas packs up her Acura Vigor and makes an impulsive move to Houston.
In Houston, she doesn’t get questioned about being Indian. The South is very different from the Midwest and Mala can’t take the word “y’all” seriously. On her career path, she lands a job in the energy industry and falls for work-obsessed Cyril, a Creole who works in her office building.
The death of the sister she can’t remember, her love for ’80s rock, and her past racial experiences follow her everywhere she goes.
Leena Ceraveeni graduated from Indiana University. She lives in Texas.
Links to her book: search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Hometown/Leena-Ceraveeni/e/9781450298414
www.amazon.com/Hometown-Leena-Ceraveeni/dp/1450298419
The Hometown, documents the racial experiences of an Indian girl born and raised in Indiana.
This statement alone suggests that all people that this girl encountered from growing up in Indiana and the people who attended Indiana University while she was there were racist against Indians and that is just outrageous!!
I disagree. Racial is not the same as racist.
Cool post!!! Just bought it!
No it doesn’t.
Read it before I made a comment. Always do Anonymous. Each person is entitled to his or her Anonymous opinion.
It doesn’t suggest that everyone she encountered was racist. I read this book and it is REAL! If you are the only Indian in your school and in your workplace, you are going to have these experiences. Mala has 1 Indian coworker in the book and her other coworkers assume that they are sisters or related. This is racial NOT racist. Read this book. You will learn something.
This book is an OUTRAGEOUS page-turner!
Nice!
A lot of imagery in this book and important topics.