"The Beautiful and the Damned" Siddartha Deb (2011) Faber & Faber


-review below

I like this book. It attempts to gain perspective on emerging trends in Indian culture (primarily pieced together from ethnographic interviews)
India has l;long been a culture dominated by sharp divides between the have-nots and the ruling classes. In the 21st Century however, there is a lot of turbulence in this dynamic  due to globalization and the influence of capitalism.
The book can be tedious at times if you don't have an academic or personal connection to the work. My favorite part thus far (I haven't read the whole book yet), is the chapter called 'The Girl from F&B: Women in the Big City'.
"F&B" is Food and Beverages, a term for an industry in India that many there consider a good career. Here we meet Esther, an Indian woman struggling to be successful in the world of "F&B"; hotel lounges, upscale restaurants, and the like. As someone who works in F&B, it is fascinating to read about Esther's life.
She majored in bio-chemistry in college and earned a Master's degree in botany, yet she was thankful for her position as a a server in F&B- a job that pays her 13,000 Rupees a month.
A brief paragraph from the text here:
     Esther's part in such wealth was a very tiny one, something like the role of a serving maid at a great imperial palace. One of history's unrecorded unremembered millions, a barbarian in Rome. Yet Delhi as an Imperial city was also a post-modern, millennial city where Esther traversed different layers of history every day on her way to work.
The book paints a picture of India through various interviews with citizens from different social/economic strata of its culture, leaving few stones unturned. (Lacking is any reference to youth culture, aside from those of the dismal lower working classes) Deb often adds merit to his data making astute observations that bring us back to a Western perspective.
This book is plain and simple good anthropology. Deb's India often looks a bit like U.S. culture (despite the apparent differences) and I think this is intentional.
If you are looking for an interesting read that is open to B->C->A reading, or have a specific interest in India and its culture, than give this book a try. It is thoroughly sleek, modern, and well-written (though perhaps a bit dry for some readers)
Is Debs trying to draw a conclusion from all his observations? I'm not certain, as I haven't finished the book. But this much I know: Debs sees an India that is evolving in strange fits before him, and he sees himself as a journalist (or even tourist) amidst this landscape- camera, notebook, and pen in hand, recording it to share with the world-at-large... Perhaps so we may draw our own conclusions.