Book Review - Review and reflections on “When Breath Becomes Air”

 There’s an old adage that goes: the only certainties in life are death and taxes. And while death is inevitable for all of us, the how, why, and when remain the great unknowns — mysteries that both unsettle and sustain us. What would you do if you knew you had only six months to a year to live? Perhaps try to leave behind a legacy while your body slowly succumbs to the inevitable.

For Paul Kalanithi, an Indian-American neurosurgeon and writer, this wasn’t a philosophical exercise — it was his reality. In the final year of his neurosurgery residency at Stanford, Paul was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Despite the best that modern medicine had to offer, the disease metastasized and spread rapidly. He was told he had less than a year to live.

The diagnosis arrived at the cusp of what should have been the most rewarding phase of his life — a promising career as a neurosurgeon and academic researcher. Paul and his physician wife, Lucy, were left reeling. But instead of retreating into despair, they chose to face the future with clarity and courage. This is not a book about “fighting cancer” or “winning battles.” It is, instead, a reflective and beautifully written chronicle of a life lived deeply — even as it draws to a close.

An English literature major, Paul brings lyrical sensitivity and philosophical inquiry to his writing. He retraces his journey from the son of Indian immigrants — in a family where a career in medicine was more or less a given — to a passionate lover of literature, and then back again to medicine, where he found a calling in neurosurgery.

Death, though inevitable, is something we rarely confront until it’s at our doorstep. Even for those of us who have experienced loss, the finality of our own end often feels too abstract to contemplate — a vague event lurking somewhere in the distant future. And perhaps that’s for the best. Until, of course, fate flips the hourglass and you can see the sand slipping away.

In the second half of When Breath Becomes Air, Paul offers an unflinching account of what it means to live with — and die from — cancer. His initial diagnosis brought cautious optimism, with an experimental drug offering temporary reprieve. But when the tumor returned, larger and more aggressive, Paul and Lucy could no longer pretend to fight it. They weren’t battling cancer; they were learning to live with its timeline. The book doesn’t peddle false hope. It’s not about defiance. It’s about acceptance.

As his condition worsens, Paul begins to write. With insight born of both medical training and lived experience, he documents his transition from doctor to patient. One of the most poignant moments in the book is when Paul removes his surgical coat for the last time — fully aware he will never again step into an operating room. Even more heartbreaking is his account of holding his newborn daughter, his body frail and trembling from chemotherapy.

I have reached an age where I’ve witnessed death — some timely, others tragically premature. And yet, I find myself still unable to fully grasp the inevitable arc of my own life. So I will file away Paul’s tender, searing prose for the time when I, too, must meet Death — and perhaps seek some solace in his words.

Footnote: A brief YT clip with reflections

Book Review ‘The Elephant Whisperer’ – if only all nonfiction books were this readable

A friend of mine gifted this book to our son, and I decided to pick it up after he read and reviewed it. I can see why the book remains a must-read for wildlife enthusiasts.

My Book Review

The story begins with Lawrence Anthony getting a call from Marion of “Elephant Managers and Owners Association” offering Thula Thula, his fledgling game reserve, a herd of 8-9 wild elephants. He had recently taken over Thula Thula and was getting his feet wet in the operations of a game reserve and naturally, Anthony is skeptical. He wonders about the ‘catch’ and Marion explains how this was a herd of ‘Rogue elephants’ that had broken out of the previous reserve and damaged crops nearby and the owners were looking for a way out. She muses that the herd would have to be “put down” if a new reserve didn’t accept them immediately.

While Anthony is thrilled at the prospect of bringing wild elephants back to his part of Zululand, he has mixed feelings about taking on this elephantine task. He must rush to electrify the fencing around 20-square miles of Thula Thula before the arrival of the herd.

The drama begins, and we are hooked.

The chapters flow seamlessly one after the other taking us into the heart of Zululand in South Africa, with the trails and tribulations of life in the bushes. The journey includes glimpses into the Zulu culture and healthy respect for the local environment which is a way of life. We share Anthony’s despair over the death of a newborn and are left cheering when he finally learns to whisper to the rogue elephants musing how “Elephants can smile beautifully.”

The Elephants are the central characters, but the story is not just about them. It is about Zululand and the life in the bushes. The risks are inherent in the operations of a game reserve, and it is not the odd rogue elephant or wild beast. Poachers, the Cattle Cabal, and the odd inept game wardens seem to do immense harm to the functioning of the carefully curated reserve.

The chapters include brief glimpses into the ‘business’ of running a large game reserve – providing jobs to the locals, opening up high-end lodging and fine-dinging for visitors, hiring and firing rangers, and entertaining VIPs and dealing with government officials and local bureaucracy. And the business is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Waking up at 2 AM awaiting a truck with arrivals, or dealing with ‘mini emergencies’ like the bite of a Black Mamba or flooding of the dam and rivers during rainstorms are par for the course.

Anthony and his co-authors are master story tellers. His first-person narrative style tries hard to make it about his beloved reserve, where he is merely the sherpa.

Footnote: Lawrence Anthony died several years ago but his French wife stayed back at Thula Thula

Musing on Passports, citizenship and Immigration and Book Reviews

An interesting article in Weekend WSJ made me reflect on Citizenship as a “flag of convenience.”  The front page article is titled “A Venture Capitalist Invests in His OlympicDream: Paul Bragiel Pauses Career to Ski For Colombia in 2014 Games” It features Paul Bragiel, an American citizen and entrepreneur who decides to pursue a dream: making it into the Olympics! For that to happen, the self-described "chunky, out-of-shape computer nerd" not only has to find a sport that he can learn to compete in but also find a nation that will host him. The article describes Bragiel’s quest: “A U.S. citizen, he found a way to become Colombian as well, although he doesn't speak Spanish.”

Paul Bragiel's story is a mirror to the aspiration of millions of Desis (South Asians), Chinese and others who try to pursue their dream: migrating to America and other western nations and eventually finding a footing by acquiring citizenship in their host nations. Citizenship, immigration and migration is also a topic Indian Americans, self-included, find fascinating.

A couple of recent books that I read capture a slice of the immigrant stories, albeit from different angles.

• One is The Billionaire's Apprentice,  a best seller by Anita Raghavan that received a lot of coverage from mainstream media. The book is primarily a chronicle of the rise and fall of three protagonists – Sri Lankan born billionaire, Raj Rajratnam, Indian born former head of McKenzie Rajat Gupta and former McKenzie partner Anil Kumar. The author attempts to build the initial narrative in the book by highlighting how South Asian immigrants to the US are a “twice blessed generation,” who benefited from educational system in post independent India and also the relaxed immigration rules in America.  (link to my review on Amazon)
• Another is “The Caretaker” a debut novel by A .X. Ahmad in which he throws in a lot of masala: story spanning continents, transnational characters, power and intrigue and a bit of melodrama. The author also weaves in bit of geo politics – a US senator trying to get brownie points by getting involved in Indo-Pak conflict and hostage negotiation in North Korea - and quirks in US immigration. A different slice of immigrant life and aspiration. (link to my review on Amazon)

It is interesting that while millions aspire to be economic migrants, a few prevelidged to be born with western passports also aspire to swim against the tide, acquire passports of developing nations to pursue their “dreams.”  Border controls, immigration and visas are modern constructs that human aspirations transcend. Passports, in that sense are just tools of convenience

Other links

Business Book review WSJ
Inside Men: NYT Book review

Musing on Agribusiness, Modern Agriculture and Enterprise Architecture

Friends, peers and former colleagues occasionally ask me what I do for a living and when I say Enterprise Architect, they raise they eyebrows. And when I say an EA for a multinational agribusiness firm, eyes begin to glaze over.
My journey into the complex and fascinating business of modern agriculture started a little more than a year-and-half ago when I took on a role of Enterprise Architect with a multinational Agribusiness company. In my previous consultant roles, I was well aware of the intricacies of EA, trained and certified in one of the popular methodologies used in the industry (TOGAF). In a sense, I had a broad understanding of the practice and application of EA. I was, however, removed from the intricacies of the business of my employer, agribusiness.

Learning about the “business” is critical for Enterprise Architects given the role we play in bridging the IT-business divide. It also helps that my employer prods employees to gain insights on our business of Modern Agriculture. One such recent program was the campaign to complete the Masters of Modern Agriculture through CLA, which prompted me to reflect on my journey thus far.

As is to be expected, many executives and business and functional leaders here have a farming or agriculture background. One could argue many of us – even urbane city dwellers - are not too far removed from agriculture perhaps with just one or two degrees of separation from agriculture.

Think of farmers and farming and one might visualize the quaint old man in a turban in a paddy field in India or the frail farmer tilling a dry plot of land in sub-Saharan Africa or the tall guy in wrangler jeans and cowboy hat standing next to a lush corn field somewhere in Iowa or Mid-western United States. Though I grew up an urban kid, and mostly lived in larger metros in India, my link to agriculture in childhood began when we would visit my dad’s ancestral town in Tamil Nadu for summer vacations, a trip that would include trek to the lush paddy fields that his brother and extended family managed. Family discussions during such get-together would revolve around vagaries of nature, monsoon, labor shortage and the like, though I recall very little discussions on agronomy or the business of modern agriculture as western farmers know it.

That image of farmer extended to that of a “grower” after I joined my employer. Perhaps because farming and agriculture is a vocation, engaging with Mother Nature. And for most, if not all farmers, even for subsistence farmers, growing is a “business.” Even subsistence farmers aspire to eke out a bit more out of the land that they can barter for other life’s necessities.

Farming: Business, government and society

Policy makers and governments around the globe struggle with “food security” issue, feeding 7-8 billion people with limited resources that Mother Nature provides. Some of the answers lie in the judicious use of science and technology to aid modern agriculture including use of “sustainable agriculture” techniques, chemicals – fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides – and genetically modified and hybrid variety seeds that can ensure greater, consistent crop yields on limited land and resources available for agriculture. And this is where the business of agriculture step in.

Agri-business value chain is complex, and includes “input companies,” like my employer that are engaged in the business of research, manufacture and supply of crop-protection chemicals – pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides - as well as biotechnology products, seeds including genetically modified, specialty breeding etc etc. Though this could be lifted out of a ag-biz promotional brochure, the goal is simple:

• Maximize yield for the grower and minimize risk of loss from pests, weeds etc 
• Enable sustainable farming with minimum resources – land, water, labor etc – at our disposal

All this to what end? Feeding the ever growing human population. And what you won’t always see in agbiz brochures is the increasing theme of enabling sustainable bio energy, ethanol and bio fuels!
Farming and Technologies

Twenty-first century agriculture is much more sophisticated and technology driven than most of us realize. On one hand we have large industrial scale mega-farms that use of GPS, automated Chemigation and irrigation systems, water pivots, genetically modified and hybrid variety seeds, sensors and drones and satellite images to monitor crops. On the other hand, we also have small subsistence farms like those prevalent in much of Asia and Africa where millions of farmers subsist on extremely small land holding. And in between the two extreme, we have all varieties of farmers including Ogranic farms, serving niche markets.

Enterprise Architects multinational agri-business firms, just like our peers in other businesses have to continue to focus on BDAT dimensions with the firm goal of aligning IS investments with business drivers. A sampling of architecturally significant use cases:

• Supply chain: complex forecasting, demand planning manufacture, production, distribution of seeds and chemical products. Of course, some of this has an added business twist. The production of parent seeds is also impacted to a large extent by the issues our growers face: vagaries of Mother Nature. The supply chain of agro-chemicals is highly regulated by federal, state and local authorities, with an increasing focus on security. 
• Partner integration: An agbiz company like most large multinationals has to integrate with partners, suppliers, vendors and others to ensure seamless interchange of data and information. 
• Enabling Research and Development (R&D): In this business, a new product can take nearly 10 years from ideation in research to getting to market with a series of complex steps in between. Emerging technologies including analytics, big data management, high performance compute are increasingly being adopted to enable accurate, faster time to market. 
• Thinking of future of farming includes scanning horizon to bring in newer technologies. This includes enabling complex agronomics enabled by timely information and data. Emerging thinking includes Digital Farming, Precision Agriculture, use of GPS, satellites and drones – enabling “use” of data. All of it targeted to provide actionable insights to end users, (in this case) here the grower.

Just my two cents and by no means a comprehensive list of the critical role of Information Technology plays in managing the complexities of agribusiness. And somewhere there comes to critical task of defining the blueprint for Enterprise Architecture that streamlines the process of bringing new techniques to the vocation of agriculture.

Links of interest

• A good overview on agribusiness “The agricultural and food value chain - Entering a new era of cooperation - KPMG Analysis
• Interesting perspectives on GMO A Race to Save the Orange by Altering Its DNA - New York Times
• Debate on Modern Agriculture “Would Americans Be Better Off Eating a Mostly Organic Diet?” - Wall Street Journal
• Tell me more: Overview of modern agriculture from Crop life america
• Farm Forward - Interseting Youtube video from John Deer 
• Syngenta's new greenhouse brings climates of the world to RTP - news and observer
• Case study: Enterprise architecture at Syngenta - Computer Weekly
• How B.I. and Data Make a More Efficient Farm - Slashdot blog
• How Monsanto Is Expanding Its Footprint Through Data Analytics - Slashdot blog 
• Book reviews from my recent reading list  - An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies by Tyler Cowen (My review on Amazon) and Harvest: An Adventure into the Heart of America's Family Farms (P.S.) by Richard Horan (My review on Amazon)

Book Review: Transformational Outsourcing: Maximize Value From IT Outsourcing

Review of Sanjay Chadha's Transformational Outsourcing: Maximize Value From IT Outsourcing :

During a recent scan on the sourcing landscape, I came across Sanjay's book which takes a good view from the buy side of sourcing though it also considers the selling (outsourcing vendor's) perspective too.

The book starts with an overview of outsourcing models and terminology, a good primer for those new to the industry and a handy reference for rest of us. The section on outsourcing strategy has good insights and planning inputs helpful for sourcing managers. Likewise, the outsourcing design section is a primer on key design aspects.

The book made me reflect on the maturing of IT sourcing, especially offshoring. The author continually weaves traditional IT outsourcing best practices - that have been honed by industry experts over the past few decades - with offshore outsourcing techniques that have emerged in the past decade or so. Rightfully so since offshoring is now an integral part of IT sourcing and there is little distinction between the two. Pure play outsourcers who don't offshore some if not much of the work are a really small

Repost from Amazon review Technorati tag : Books

Book Review : That's I.T

Here's my book review of  a recent eBook, "That's I.T" by Ramesh Revuru

The book and narrative are easy to read. The author holds a mirror to readers – primarily those who have worked with offshoring IT service providers – drawing on his own experiences and empirical observations of the sourcing industry segment.

Those of us who have spent time in the trenches of offshoring can instantly relate to the anecdotes. I love the author’s chutzpah: trying to make a point about Indian English Vinglish with a hit-below-the-belt observation of Infosys former CEO’s “thick Kerala accent in his spoken English.” Ramesh goes on to narrate how Kris, the “CEO in his less than 30 minute speech used the words “(and) things like that” as many as 72 times. His body language and posturing too were showing how uncomfortable he was”

Ramesh uses humor to mask serious topics and observations on practical challenges faced by those working for offshoring service providers: he explores the topic of loyalty (chapter 9) with a moving anecdote of a software trainee from Pune. While trying to address the issue, Ramesh was frustrated that he was not empowered to request additional time at the company guest house for a deserving employee.

I guess the underlying message in the anecdote is the lack of maturity of HR processes. HR managers seek to manage with a process driven template, delegating much of the face-to-face interactions to line managers without actually empowering them. Line managers like Ramesh have a lot more operational issues on their plate than they can handle. Picking up an internal battle with HR on behalf of an employee is perhaps least of their priorities. In this case, Ramesh had to travel onsite the day after he discussed the issue with his direct report. Many readers who have worked with offshoring firms are sure to have similar anecdotes to narrate. Years ago, I fought an uphill battle when I found myself at the receiving end (ref: eBook : a Child lost in flight)

A highly readable narrative and writing style though at times the use of “we” left me wondering if there was a co-author or just the author’s use of English Vinglish (or perhaps it was a royal “we”?) Example “..intentionally, we have left out the below from this discussion. We decided not to consider Ads posted in newspapers for…” (chapter 4. Rocket Singh).  Note: The author later stopped by the blog with his explanation of this usage (comments)

Recommendation: Five stars for research and aggregation of topics. Four stars overall.  (Also cross-posted the review on Amazon)

Review of a foodie's views on agribusiness: “An Economist Gets Lunch”

Tyler Cowen’s book “An Economist Gets Lunch” was added to my 2012 Christmas reading list for one simple reason: I have been trying to keep updated on agribusiness, given my role of an Enterprise Architect working with a multinational agribusiness fierm. Here is my initial reaction on the book.

The book covers two topics. It is predominantly a foodie’s observations of “finding good places to eat” while traveling, interspersed with tips on cooking at home. The secondary topic is a brief discourse on agri-business which is restricted to two chapters (#7 and  #8).

The first section of the book reaffirmed my empirical observation from travels across continents: how a variety of meats and fish feature predominantly in menus around the world. Restaurants in most western metropolises’ have begun to offer at least a few vegetarian friendly entrée, but still cater to diets that are largely meat based. As the author observes, many meat by-products – e.g lard – are also used for cooking “vegetarian” entrée.  The vegetarian in me found the descriptions of the techniques of barbeque and the like inscrutable but I still found the narrative gripping enough to read through those sections.

In the brief analysis of agri-business, Cowen makes a few arguments on spreading modern agribusiness to more parts of the world. He observes “For all the talk about India as a great economic power on the rise, most Indian farming is still done by hand on a small scale. … The result of all these restrictions is that agriculture remains the most backward major sector of India’s economy and the rate of investment in Indian agriculture is barely increasing.” While making the argument, the  author contrasts by giving high points to Mexican agribusiness when he muses :

“What are the real reasons why Mexican food can be so much better in Mexico than in United States? I think of Mexico as a country that straddles two food worlds in a very advantageous manner. They have enough technology and modernity to manage modern food supply networks, run good restaurants, and send fair amount of diversity the way of everyday foodie. At the same time, Mexico still is in the close touch with more artisanal methods of food production. The country has agribusiness, but it doesn’t only have agribusiness. “

The right-leaning economist in Mr. Cowen also hypothesizes on benefits of genetically modifying crops, observing how corn did not originally appear in nature without human intervention: “the breeding of corn occurred over generations and from genetic tests it is identified as coming 8,990 and 8,610 years before birth of Christ.” A gist of the author’s arguments

·         GMOs increase the supply of food, thereby lowering food prices and feeding the poor

·         One of the next green revolutions may come from the direction of what are called Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).  

·         The underreported story that GMOs have considerable environmental benefits is overlooked.

·         GMOs may help limit global warming through other advances

·         Rich countries do not need GMOs but poor countries do

I have been following some of the arguments on global food-security and also the role of multinational agribusiness firms in “feeding the world” And most of the arguments, when one looks at from a rational economic angle make sense. However, what is intriguing is that most discussions on food and food security focus more on crops and grains and to a much lesser extent on animals and poultry. The fact is that food-grains are just another, albeit significant “ingredient” in meat production: After all, animal meat, poultry and fish are the last leg in the “feeding the world” value chain?

Other interesting reviews of the book:

• NYT: A Contrarian Chowhound Weighs In
• USA Today: 'An Economist Gets Lunch' offers new perspectives
• WSJ: Invisible Hand to Mouth
• Boston Globe review

Book Review : Offshore: India's Services Juggernaut

I began reading the book “Offshore: India's Services Juggernaut” wearing multiple hats, reflecting on my prior experience in sell side of sourcing before finding myself on the other side of the fence.

Written by a couple of veteran Infosys employees, the book attempts to take a broad view of the offshoring industry. The authors draw on their Desi heritage with several anecdotes from Ramayana, monkey god Hanuman, references from Bollywood movie Sholay etc etc. I guess this comes from years of practiced self-deprecating humor that Indian offshoring salesmen have to adopt with western clients in order to dispel the notion that India, besides being a land of sadhus and snake charmers is also a land of cyber coolies (moniker used by authors). Interestingly, the cyber coolies are also prone to use such references in regular interactions with client managers when transplanted “onsite”

The first few chapters dwell on extensive context setting. These are perhaps useful for someone landing in Bangalore straight from the nineteen eighties, but for the rest of us providing and consuming offshoring IT services, it reads as summary of news clippings from the past two decades. 

The chapter “what makes a company Indian?” is an attempt to create a case for us to view Indian software sourcing companies (primarily TCS, Infosys, Wipro) as transnationals. While making the argument, authors highlight the increasing Indian footprint of Accenture and IBM along with a brief analysis of captive offshoring (do it yourself). While the narrative in the section is presented logically, one cannot be sure if the arguments are conclusive.

Why mess with Success? The chapter “why can’t India produce a Microsoft” contains a candid assessment of variances in business models of software services and software (product) development.  “An IT services company, on the other hand, takes far fewer risks with its investments….. even if your company is not in the top twenty services companies, you will still be able to carry on with your business profitably”  To see senior executives of Infosys admit that it is not in their DNA to be a software firm is refreshing indeed.

The section on “Hard Slog for Account” gives a good glimpse into the business of sourcing through the eyes of offshoring salesmen. I love the candid assessment of the growth story: eating the elephant one byte at a time (pun intended). Of course, the hard slog is rewarded with a magic of geometric progression. The authors admit a pareto’s law at work: about 80 percent of revenues coming from about 10 percent of accounts. Given this fact, Anyone who has attended a quarter end financial status call is bound to be left scratching their heads over why analsyst and CFO’s make a big deal of announcing “addition of x new clients” every quarter.

The armchair investor in me was also interested the future potential: any radical business models that can replace the linear growth required by GDM and offshoring? The chapter “Most of the New, New things” left me feeling like I was gazing at a crystal ball while occasionally looking at a rear-view mirror. I guess technology forecast is an imprecise art and practitioners rarely share such insights in a book till they have successfully executed (and milked their ideas). And it is not as if I expected to be exposed to Infosys (author’s employer’s) emerging strategy.

The section on “quest for higher bill rates” explores several ideas to address the challenge of commoditization. Great account management, exploring new geographies and a shift towards consulting services are obvious approaches. The section on solution perhaps has more questions than answers, perhaps the reason offshoring firms continue to struggle in the utopian quest to sell solutions.

The authors conclude the book my musing about the “juggernaut” showing signs of slowing down. In the few years since I wrote my book on Offshoring IT Services, I continued to observe and learn a few things about the offshoring industry: especially the challenges facing the industry majors: weighed down by their own scale, lack of agility and responsiveness, the “usual” logistical issues of managing a maturing, mobile workforce, grappling with protectionism and visa hurdles in western markets. All topics that keep industry leaders awake at night but few with easy answers.

Bottomline: The book gives sufficient insights into the inner workings of the industry and a few ideas on way forward and should be of interest to marketers and wannabe’s

Five star for research, content and narrative. Overall Four stars for new insights. (Repost on Amazon.com)

Reviewing the book Leaving India and the question “Where are you from?”

I was intrigued by the topical title of the book, Leaving India, a copy of which I picked up while traveling to Bangalore recently. The book, while readable did not exactly “keep me up late into the night” as Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s blurb on the jacket promises. It is a mix of academic and theoretical observations peppered with stories and anecdotes. I finished reading it on the 14-plus hour plane ride back to San Francisco.

Minal Hajratwala has done a great job of traveling, interviewing and capturing the immigration saga of her extended family spanning over a century. The book is primarily about migrants of the Gujarati Khatri community that the author belongs to. By selecting her extended family for her research, Hajratwala has been able to focus on an otherwise eclectic topic of immigration.

She draws from her personal experiences, a childhood in New Zealand and Michigan. There is a tinge of bitterness about her childhood, partly attributable to her experiences in racially charged Michigan of the seventies.

One of the most interesting passages in the book is when Hajratwala examines the question “Where are you from?” (P 339).

This is a question NRIs, ABCDs and Indian Immigrants get asked a lot; lot more than we care to admit!

Many a times, the question is just an ice-breaker, like when you are asked “Where are you from?” and you reply “India,” after which the Caucasian woman may ask “which part of India?” . . . and if you say “Bangalore” she might start off with “I was in India a few years ago with my husband/friend, we traveled to Agra and Jaipur”

Now, if like me, you happen to be an NRI, and when asked the question, you answer “I am from Phoenix, or Here, San Francisco,” you might hear Oh?”

And just as Hajratwala reflects in her book “". . .and in her voice you might hear a faint rise: disbelief, wonder, a set of questions she does not ask” . .. “I am thinking of all the times I have faced this question – dozens? Hundreds? – and how, even now, I feel I must defend or explain my answer . . . but none of these would give a clue to either ethnicity or character”

Touché, Ms Hajratwala, well put!

Ps: My Book review on Amazon.com
Washington Post's review of the book