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| Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East | 
 enlarge | Author: Gita Mehta
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $1.54
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (25 reviews)
Sales Rank: 317990
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 4.9 x 0.2
ISBN: 0679754334
Dewey Decimal Number: 954.04
EAN: 9780679754336
ASIN: 0679754334
Publication Date: June 28, 1994
Release Date: June 28, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
Brilliantly 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
spirituality for the modern consumer September 7, 2008
There's a great abundance and variety of spirituality or holistic health in India. Each permutation requires at least one guru. Karma Cola takes you on a tour of this.
Why are so many westerners so eager for some doses of Eastern philosophy? Probably because they already know how disappointed they are with western religions. It helps that Christianity, a strange middle eastern religion, wiped out so many strains of western philosophy.
Why did this happen in the 1960s? The young adults of the 1960s were a new type of american. The first generation born and raised as "Consumers". Trained from an early age to want to drive cars, be cowboys or soldiers, and watch a lot of television shows about cowboys, soldiers, and super heroes.
India became a new frontier. There were no cowboys or jet fighter pilots or machine gunning positions open. But it was a good place to go to be surrounded by new ideas and monstrous poverty. You could be some kind of wizard or sage in India.
 Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East August 4, 2008
Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East
"Karma Cola" is a strong, clear minded book and easy to read. A compilation of short amusing stories. What was the Westerners picture about India during the `60s and `70s ? What the real life was? And the philosophy of life? It is not stated, ...but it is there. A great book never to forget.
Brilliantly Mocking, Insulting & Enlightening February 3, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Before anyone even starts reading this book, think Dave Barry or PJ O'Rouke. The tone of this excellent piece of writing is both sharply insulting and brutally honest.
Gita Mehta's book deals with the spiritual equivalent of some financial bubble. Disillusioned by their own culture, many Westerners flock to the East to seek enlightenment. Exotic India became their spiritual resort. Many hippies who flocked to India during the 60s and 70s abandoned their own identities and decided to adopt traditional Indian ways and beliefs which have already become unpopular with better educated Indians.
Some of these hippies were genuinely seeking enlightenment. But they were parted with their money the moment they met some guru. Hence the title karma cola. Bizarre Indian beliefs and practices which are no longer acceptable to thinking Indians can be marketed to gullible foreigners.
Educated and modern Indians want clean, urine-free streets and Coke. The jaded Westerners saw paradise in the dirty and chaotic India. Some were even willing to drink their guru's urine to seek enlightenment.
Other hippies use enlightenment as an excuse of group sex and cheap, readily available drugs. Some wake up from their dreams and go home. Others need psychiatric help. There are numerous anecdotes with lots of well-researched background information.
I'm not surprised if some people are offended by the author's somewhat pompous style and derisive remarks, but any rational human being should be able to see her point. Let's also not forget that the author is also trying to be funny.
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It will make you a more sophisticated traveler. March 18, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I read Karma Cola before my first trip to India in 1983. It helped me understand that I cannot fully comprehend this beautiful, exotic culture. It is enough to merely observe and marvel in it.
I appreciate her irreverent tone, which reminds me of Tom Wolfe.
KARMA COLA IS AN AMAZINGLY WELL WRITTEN BOOK November 3, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Gita Mehta has a real knack for using an economy of words. She covers the vast topic of Westerners misunderstanding of South Asian spirituality in less than 150 pages, and yet she leaft this reader feeling like he'd read a comprehensive summary of the issue.
Mehta has a wicked sense of humor, and excells at deflating the hypocracy of the fake gurus. This is an excellent book - you should buy it.
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