Between Filter Coffee and Cappucino...

S Mari was my colleague at ITC, Expressions greeting cards, where I worked for 5 months, at the start of my career as a trainee copywriter. She is the author of ‘Between Filter Coffee and Cappucino: The story of a confused Indian.’

She is on my Facebook list, and I saw her Facebook update saying she had come out with a book, so I was quick to go to Amazon and download it with my Kindle Unlimited Subscription, where the book is available for free. It is being sold for Rs. 250 on Kindle, otherwise.

The book traces the journey of a simple homemaker Nandini, who is your typical traditional South Indian ‘filter kaapi’ drinking, ‘all-heart desi mom’ who moves to the US of A with her husband and child to work there and adapts to the cultural changes, which involve more than just the cappuccino and isolation. How she wins over her colleagues and decides home is where the heart is, forms the crux of this short tale, which has a lot of soul, to make up for its hasty writing and slightly sloppy copy editing.

If you are expecting descriptions of Chicago or slices of life from a ‘foreign’ perspective you will be disappointed. You are more likely to read about sambar spilling on the floor of the house and the family making a quick trip to North Carolina to ‘make the most of 500 dollars’. The trip again describes the group dynamics more than the places or sights and sounds.

Traditional south Indian working professionals would enjoy this book, although the young, upwardly mobile millennial ad agency crowd might find this a bit old-fashioned.

Also, the title says it is the story of a ‘confused Indian’. There doesn’t seem to be much confusion here. The protagonist seems to be quite clear about her identity, maybe only confused about her choices. She makes the choice that is in alignment with her heart at the end of the story. Read on to find out more.

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