''Hearts Divided In the Raj'' by Patricia McGready-Buffardi Paperback (6x9) ISBN 9781418424763 $ 16.00 Snipped from http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail~bookid~23656.aspx QUOTE: About the Author Born in Nagpur, India, in 1941, Patricia McGready-Buffardi jumped the prickly fences of two societies but like "pish-pash," a mushy but tasty mixture of over-cooked rice and lentils, popular with Anglo-Indian children across the vast subcontinent, she enjoyed a delicious concoction of both cultures...British and Indian. From the barren plans of Central India, living hard-by the railway tracks in her stationmaster grandfather's home, along the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, to an island home in Southern India with her naval officer father, she presents a kaleidoscope of her "mixed-breed" family, before and after The Raj. Moving from port to port, she provides comic relief in the form of an old English Vauxhall, her family's travels and travails frustrating but wondrous. Rich in detail, the memoir is a prism of days lost forever on the subcontinent, since the Anglo-Indian race is now almost extinct, with the inter-marriages of the new generation around the globe. The author has lived in the United States since 1966. With a Bachelor's Degree in English (Creative Writing), and working as a freelance columnist for the New Orleans Times Picayune (St. Tammany Edition), she finally felt ready to pen her memoir, which begins and ends in India. Although she and her husband, Lou Buffardi, have travelled extensively they now live on the Pacific West Coast in Port Orchard, Washington. About the Book >From the barren plains of Central India, living hard-by the railway tracks in her stationmaster grandfather's home, along the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, to an island home in Southern India with her naval officer father, Patricia McGready-Buffardi presents a colourful kaleidoscope of her "mixed-breed" family, before and after The Raj; the turbulence within the Anglo-Indian community; her father's career in the fledgling Indian Navy and his agony over the division of it at Independence; and the division of Anglo-Indian hearts throughout the subcontinent. Moving from port to port with her family, she provides comic relief in the form of an old English Vauxhall, their travels across the vast subcontinent frustrating but wondrous. Spanning four generations of the McGready family her memoir, although intensely personal, is a historical tour de force. Growing up in India for two decades she jumped the prickly fences of two societies, British and Indian. Like "pish-pash," a mushy but tasty mix of over-cooked rice, lentils and left-overs, popular with Anglo-Indian children across the country, she enjoyed a delicious concoction of both cultures. As a child, her grandfather told stories of his boyhood and his own father's passion for the railways, an intimate portrait of a simple pioneering family. Rich in detail, the memoir is a prism of days lost forever on the subcontinent, since the Anglo-Indian race is fast dwindling...with the inter-marriages of the new generation around the globe. In short, a race that is almost extinct. UNQUOTE [For more, see the webpage.] =========== ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India