Karma Cola (Paperback)

by Gita Mehta (Author) "I went from one candle-lit barsati to another, chancing upon a hypodermic event here, a seance there, until I finally found the gentlemen who had..." (more)
Key Phrases: platform heels, burning ghats, Hare Krishna, New York, Anand Margis (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"A witty documentary satire... In only 201 pages Mehta embraces an enormous variety of life and death. Her style is light without being flip; her skepticism never descends to cynicism. Given her subject this is a miracle of rationalism and taste."

Time



"It's as if Tom Wolfe had gone to India, changed his white suit for a dirty dhoti, and freaked out by the sacred ghats.... There are enough crazy characters, stories and wild scenes here for several novels, and the entire book offers what must be the real juice and color of modern India seen from the inside."

Library Journal

"Ms. Mehta writes about the clash of Eastern and Western cultures... earthy wit that the reader's interest is instantly engaged."

Baltimore Sun "Mehta's message is ... that the best things in each culture are the hardest won, over the longest time and at greatest pain...how in the movement from one culture to another, much of a generation lost its sense that life has any values at all."

The Boston Globe -- Review

Review
"A witty documentary satire... In only 201 pages Mehta embraces an enormous variety of life and death. Her style is light without being flip; her skepticism never descends to cynicism. Given her subject this is a miracle of rationalism and taste."

Time



"It's as if Tom Wolfe had gone to India, changed his white suit for a dirty dhoti, and freaked out by the sacred ghats.... There are enough crazy characters, stories and wild scenes here for several novels, and the entire book offers what must be the real juice and color of modern India seen from the inside."

Library Journal

"Ms. Mehta writes about the clash of Eastern and Western cultures... earthy wit that the reader's interest is instantly engaged."

Baltimore Sun "Mehta's message is ... that the best things in each culture are the hardest won, over the longest time and at greatest pain...how in the movement from one culture to another, much of a generation lost its sense that life has any values at all."

The Boston Globe

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (March 13, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449906043
• ISBN-13: 978-0449906040
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,739,380 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Karma Cola maintains its fizz..., October 2, 2000

By	Richard Wells (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've come to this book a little late in its publishing history, and though the story is dated in terms of the mass of seekers who descended on India in the 60's and 70's westerners still seek the "wisdom of the east," and this Karma Cola has not lost its fizz. This is an angry, critical, sarcastic look at the rage for inner peace that has driven many seekers to psychiatric care, and many gurus to the bank. It's also a book filled with sadness as Gita Mehta both castigates and mourns - for her country's spiritual traditions stacked into the supermarket of the latest craze; and for the naive who believe hard won self-knowledge can be had with the touch of a teacher's hand - or a certain less visible appendage. It's finally true that if you can't find peace and love at home you probably won't find it in India either. Besides, six thousand years of spiritual and cultural history just shouldn't be toyed with.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars True, but Very Partial and Unfair, June 3, 2005

By	Zen Nataraj - See all my reviews

This review is from: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East (Paperback)

I read this book during my research about spiritual tourism in India. Mehta is a professional writer from a secular elite Indian family. Taking place in the 1970s, the author snipes at both Western New Agers and Indian gurus. The former are criticized for their blind naivete in searching for enlightenment in India; the latter are denounced for their shrewd manipulation of wealthy foreigners, for their own material (sometimes sexual) benefit. I witnessed similar situations.

However, Mehta was way too selective in what stories to tell, and she says nothing positive at all about spiritual search. Underlying her sarcastic sense of humor, there lies a basic exclusionary assumption: Mehta is against the mixing of East and West. Her irritation with such experiments leads to often unfair commentary (such as, contrary to what she claims, Bhagwan Rajneesh was never seen as a god by his Western disciples). Mehta ends up throwing the baby out with the bath water.

For more descriptive, less judgmental accounts on Westerner travelers in India, the reader may try Cleo Odzer's auto-biographical "Goa Freaks", as well as Anthony D'Andrea's "Global Nomads", both of which examining the lifestyle of Westerners in Goa and Pune.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the usual view of India, February 6, 1998

By	[e-mail] (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East (Paperback)

Karma Cola is definitely required reading for any westerner interested in things Indian or perhaps contemplating hitting the Dharma trail. Its recognition that misunderstanding goes both ways (eg. the anecdotes about gurus treatment of their Western students) is a good reality check for those of us whose spiritual search has taken us there. Ms Mehta gently reminds us that trying to absorb 5000 years of experience and living may take a little more than a few weeks of squat loos, and some Om Mani Padme Hums.

This is the first time I've ever read a book about the move of Eastern thought into the West which was not written by a Westerner. In some ways sobering, it is also witty and at times poignant.

By the way, an earlier reviewer lambasted the author for attributing the wrong language to clerks from Kerala. That mistake has been fixed in the edition I have (Minerva 1997 paperback).