Description

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Storyline Things are not going too well for Jai Katragantala, Senior Programmer Analyst from India locked away at the Immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey. He has been thrown in the lam for several serious documentation violations. A stroke of luck gets Jai selected for a parole contest initiated by the US government to improve their image world-wide. At stake for Jai is his freedom and a chance to unite with Rukki, his childhood sweetheart. Anchor and anti-immigration evangelist Drew Droblin tries his best to give Jai a bum steer. But the Indian programmer is surprisingly good. Through flash-backs we get insights into how Jai got into a tight spot. We are introduced to the world of H1B programmers, and consulting. (Body shopping if you want to use the pejorative word.) In the end it is left to the reader to decide if Jai will be idealistic and altruistic or practical and worldly wise. It is a screenplay with alternate endings.

About the Author

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There are two famous Ravi Shankars; first and foremost the great music maestro Ravi Shankar who introduced the West to the Sitar and music of the East; and then Shri Shri Ravi Shankar of spiritual fame and following. With a name like Ravi Shankar, I have had a lot of explaining to do at airports and over the phone that I am neither musically or spiritually gifted and am not the Ravi Shankar that they have confused me with. However I can write or have been writing for as far as I can remember, though unpublished, and hence you could rightfully call me 'The other unpublished Ravi Shankar'. If you all choose to publish me, then my title should be amended to 'The other unpublished Ravi Shankar now published.' Of Indian origin, I reside in New Jersey running an IT consultancy business. Sometimes I feel I work at the zoo - the experiences have left indelible images in my mind. There are about three to four books written in my head and two committed to paper. A few ideas float in and out my consciousness, I trap these thoughts and struggle to sculpt the words into the likeness of the original thoughts. At times, I succeed. I believe that a novel or a play, however well-worded should have a strong plot and form. It should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There should be a build-up to a climax -it is a human need. Over the last two decades the perception of Indians towards NRIs has changed. America has changed. There are a lot of problems that the US faces. India has grown but is still India. I am not sure if I have been assimilated into mainstream America. Neither do I belong to India. I write about this.