 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
About Suburban Sahibs by S. Mitra Kalita In so many ways, Edison, N.J., is the quintessential American suburb, under an hour from the city by train, subdivided neatly into houses with identical floor plans, dotted with mini-malls and gas stations and monster movie theaters. Named after the famous inventor of the light bulb, town officials often boast it is the place "where tomorrow was born." Suburban Sahibs tells us that still might ring true. As immigration has continuously redefined America, it also has radically transformed the American suburb. Through the migration of three families from India to Central New Jersey, this book delves into how immigration has altered the American suburb, and how the suburb, in turn, has altered the immigrant. The book quickly gained international acclaim and became a bestseller for Rutgers University Press. It was featured thrice in The New York Times, as well as other articles and reviews in The Star-Ledger, Newsday and the San Francisco Chronicle. National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" did a 45-minute segment on the book. It won awards from the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance and New Jersey Library Association. Suburban Sahibs is now in its third printing, available in paperback, and is a mandatory title in several universities across the country, from urban planning to Asian studies. The book was published overseas by Penguin India, also to favorable review. Middlesex County houses one of the largest Indian populations in the world outside India. Their mark on the region has been gradual but increasingly definitive: auto-repair outlets named after "Deepa" and "Singh," a thriving commercial strip of sari stores and sweets shops, valedictorians named Patel and Shah. To be sure, the reception from long-time residents has not been an entirely warm one as Indian-American shopkeepers regularly contend with broken and egged windows. Yet as Indians achieve economic success, their desire for political and social parity grows stronger; their acceptance becomes less a question and more a reality. In a captivating work of narrative nonfiction, journalist S. Mitra Kalita traces the evolution of the suburb from a destination for new arrivals to a launching pad for them. She focuses on three waves of immigration in the post Civil Rights era through the stories of three families: the Kotharis, Patels and Sarmas. Their experience offers a window into the America that has become: a nation of suburbs, a nation of immigrants. In the late 19th century, tourists descended upon Edison to gawk at its Christmas lights displays. Today, thousands of Indians from all over the United States arrive in the same bedroom community to celebrate their own festivals of lights and colors. Suburban Sahibs attempts to answer the question of how and why they arrived -- and how Edison, once again, might be the community that has shown us the future. |
|
|||
