ALWAYS A FOREIGNER

The journey was like the voyage of Sinbad, full of adventure. Running up a Himalayan hillside pulling leeches off her legs, covering drug busts in a gritty US suburb to uncovering racism under the pure Alpine snow, Ashwini Devare's fascinating memoir is about growing up as an Indian Foreign Service child in the 70s and 80s. From the Soviet Union's Iron Curtain to Burma's Bamboo Curtain, Ashwini Devare lived in six countries by the time she was fifteen. In each country, she had a front-row seat to tumultuous global events that redefined the twentieth century, from the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri to the integration of Sikkim into India, the assassination of Indira Gandhi to student-led democracy in South Korea. Ashwini Devare's journey from diplomat's daughter to broadcast journalist was marked by constant changes and upheaval. 'Fitting in' was the mantra for survival.