{"product_id":"the-beautiful-the-damned-1","title":"The Beautiful \u0026 the Damned","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSiddhartha Deb grew up in a remote town in the north-eastern hills of India and made his way to the United States via a fellowship at Columbia. Six years after leaving home, he returned as an undercover reporter for the\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, working at a call centre in Delhi in 2004, a time when globalization was fast proceeding and Thomas L. Friedman declared the world flat. Deb's experience interviewing the call-centre staff led him to undertake this book and travel throughout the subcontinent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Beautiful and the Damned\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eexamines India's many contradictions through various individual and extraordinary perspectives. With lyrical and commanding prose, Deb introduces the reader to an unforgettable group of Indians, including a Gatsby-like mogul in Delhi whose hobby is producing big-budget gangster films that no one sees; a wiry, dusty farmer named Gopeti whose village is plagued by suicides and was the epicentre of a riot; and a sad-eyed waitress named Esther who has set aside her dual degrees in biochemistry and botany to serve Coca-Cola to arms dealers at an upscale hotel called Shangri La.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLike no other writer, Deb humanizes the post-globalization experience--its advantages, failures, and absurdities. India is a country where you take a nap and someone has stolen your job, where you buy a BMW but still have to idle for cows crossing your path. Available for the first time with the controversial and previously unpublished first chapter,\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Beautiful and the Damned\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eis as important and incisive today as it was when it was first published.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Best of used books","offers":[{"title":"Used","offer_id":43882024042753,"sku":"2P6DPSJY9-Used","price":150.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0421\/4299\/0495\/products\/40_1f571d09-4f8d-43e6-953b-3c9bdb502140.jpg?v=1646905129","url":"https:\/\/bestofusedbooks.com\/products\/the-beautiful-the-damned-1","provider":"Best Of Used Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}