Gita Mehta, Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979) ("And India acquired another willing convert to the philosophy of the meaningfully meaningless" "Or was it the meaninglessly meaningful? Did anyone know what was happening?" Id. at 17-18. "'I don't know,' says a female German economist from Hamburg.... 'But I think they should definitely have a quality control on gurus. A lot of my friends have gone made in India.'" Id. at 18. "The danger of men becoming Muzak, a background hum to keep busy machines happy, has not been overlooked in India. In the old days the warrior garlanded his sword, the trader propitiated his scales, an annual reminder that unless the proper distance and respect were maintained between men and the products of their invention, it was possible that the machine might take over." "Today when the season comes for that commemoration, the offices and factories of India are filled with people garlanding air conditioners, placing coconuts in front of cash registers, and placating computers with fresh fruit. A a result of these precautions, they are still sometimes able to converse without the intermediary of a machine.' Id. at 127-128. "Philosophy can sometimes be as lethal as cancer." "A lot of people who claim to be Hindu-minded are rushing around the world killing or being killed in the name of philosophy. Some are drawn by the machismo of the mumbo, others come for the jeopardies of the jumbo, but whatever their claims to profundity, the mumbo jumbo looks like good old-fashioned fascism to the insider." "Unlike the realities of cancer, the fantasies of fascism give you a choice. Victimizing or getting victimized, being the leader of playing follow the leader. Or, as they say in the star systems of America, winning or losing. Unfortunately, human constellations have repeatedly shown that stellar mortals have a high mortality rare. And of late, our radar screens have been jammed with falling bodies." Id. at 171.).
Gita Mehta, Raj: A Novel (New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1989) ("For a long time there was silence. Then a voice seemed to swell up from the earth resonated in the stillness: 'Ram Nam Sat Hai. The Name of God is Truth. Shanti! Shanti! Shanti!' [] 'The Name of God is Truth. Let there be peace and peace and peace.'" Id. at 129. "Jaya pulled Lady Modi into the curtained palanquin strapped to the purdah elephant. 'My God, darling. What a smell. Don't they ever air these things?' She pulled the hip flask from her handbag. The elephant rose to his feet, flinging her against the side of the howdah. She wiped furiously at the gin running down the embroidered skirt. 'Damn the Nawab and his stupid dogs. Why didn't he put us in a car? It's all very well laughing, darling, but do you realize this man has built three fully equipped hospitals for his dogs and none for his people? He should have been king of a dog kingdom. His eight hundred animals have fans to keep them cool in the summer and fireplaces for winter. They have their own retainers who feed them from gold and silver dishes. But his subjects--who are only human beings--have nothing. Perhaps they should practice sitting on their hind legs and begging when he whistles. Might improve their lot.'" Id at 308. "'But I hope we find ourselves in the real jungle again, Baisa. Nature is less treacherous than men.'" Id. at 333.).
Gita Mehta, A River Sutra (New York: Doubleday, 1993) ("Unlike your busy pantheon of Hindu gods, we Jains follow in the footsteps of a man. A great prince it is true, but still only a man who found all his wealth, power, beauty gave him no more than transitory pleasure and who yearned for a pleasure that could be sustained. Wrapped in the luxuries of a great court by day, a beautiful young wife by night, Mahavira longed for the freedom to find this state of bliss, if it existed." "And so one day he left his gilded cage in a mighty procession with dancers clearing the way for elephants, horses, camels loaded with wealth to be distributed to the poor." "Since then, whenever a Jain becomes a monk, a procession and the distribution of charity mark his departure form the world." Id at 20. "'The human heart has only one secret. The capacity to love.'" Id. at 48.).
Gita Mehta, Snakes and Ladders: Glimpses of Modern India (New York: Nan A. Talese/ Doubleday, 1997) ("It is a cliche to say that India is not really a nation. Certainly it is not a nation with the diamond-hard convictions of national identity that inspire many other countries. It is not even a single civilization. Rather, it is several civilizations in separate stages of development, co-existing despite their contradictions. And yet, throughout my youth there was an annual agitation in the Indian capital when top-notch types would arrive in Delhi form all parts pf the land to attend the National Integration Council and discuss--unsuccessfully--what was required to forge India into a recognizable nation." "Those were the days of independent India's youth, when people of the West would aggressively demand answers from Indians to such depressing questions as 'When is India going to have a revolution?' and 'Why hasn't India has a Long March?'" "Both the National Integrationists and the West interrogators failed to realize that to achieve these dramatic upheavals a country must have a cohesive identity--and India hasn't." Id. at 25-26.).
