She highlights the absurdity that people looking for enlightenment and truth are falling for the rhetoric of gurus teaching such blatantly irrational doctrines. A westward-looking Indian (Cambridge-educated), Mehta views young spiritual seekers with a combination of amusement and dismay. Whether it is some Europeans worshipping a candy-eating five Gita Mehta's Karma Cola, originally published in 1980, is a collection of anecdotes about the Western travelers that Mehta met in India in the 1970s. Gita Mehta's Karma Cola, originally published in 1980, is a collection of anecdotes about the Western travelers that Mehta met in India in the 1970s. IвЂ™m yet to come across another book of this sort and am glad that an Indian perspective of the madness of those times has been documented. MehtaвЂ™s choice of words and the usage of satire makes the book an interesting read. According to the author, their plight was such that, in order to hold onto their lifestyle, many sold their passports in the black-market and in their naivety, allowed themselves to be physically, emotionally, and sexually abused as they awaited spiritual enlightenment. The book is a string of humorous, mind-boggling and oftentimes painful anecdotes about these hippies who in their psychedelic state of mind fended for themselves in shady shacks if they couldnвЂ™t afford the substantial amounts ashrams levied to sell them the enlightenment they sought for so badly. Con men were aplenty in India back then and they readily catered to the western fantasies of a mystic East. As an Indian who had lived in the US and UK, the author looked on perplexed as the nirvana hunters plummeted headlong into addictions and devotion for bogus gurus who in reality were probably capable of teaching them a lesson or two about materialism. I found unexpected answers in Gita MehtaвЂ™s Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East which is about the millions of westerners who flooded to India in the 60s and 70s. As an Indian who had lived in the US and UK, the author looked on perplexed as the nirvana hunters plummeted headlong into addictions and devotion for bogus I had always romanticized the hippie culture, their magic bus and the trail the counterculture activists took and often wondered what happened to the hippies who made it to India. I had always romanticized the hippie culture, their magic bus and the trail the counterculture activists took and often wondered what happened to the hippies who made it to India. In doing so, she also reveals the devastating byproducts that the Westerners brought to the villages of rural lndia - high anxiety and drug addiction among them.Д«rilliantly irreverent, Karma Cola displays Gita Mehta's gift for weaving old and new, common and bizarre, history and current events into a seamless and colorful narrative that is at once witty, shocking, and poignant.more

In the dazzling prose that has become her trademark, Mehta skewers the entire Spectrum of seekers: The Beatles, homeless students, Hollywood rich kids in detox, British guilt-trippers, and more. When she finally recorded her razor sharp observations in Karma Cola, the book became an instant classic for describing, in merciless detail, what happens when the traditions of an ancient and longlived society are turned into commodities and sold to those who don't understand them.

An Indian writer who has also lived in England and the United States, Gita Mehta was ideally placed to observe the spectacle of European and American 'pilgrims' interacting with their hosts. An Indian writer who has also lived in England and the United States, Gita Mehta was ideally placed to observe the spectacle of European and American 'pilgri Beginning in the late '60s, hundreds of thousands of Westerners descended upon India, disciples of a cultural revolution that proclaimed that the magic and mystery missing from their lives was to be found in the East. Beginning in the late '60s, hundreds of thousands of Westerners descended upon India, disciples of a cultural revolution that proclaimed that the magic and mystery missing from their lives was to be found in the East.

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