The culture of India, has been refined by the many foreign invaders
who ruled the country, the most impactful of all had been the British rulers.
Our country has imbibed the language, constitution, law, and a lot of cultural facets
from them. This has placed us in complete opposition to Americans as far as the
lifestyle is concerned. “The inscrutable
Americans” very well reflects this contradiction.
Right from the opening of the faucets, to driving, to
parenting, studying etc, everything is a total contradiction from India. This
puts the protagonist Gopal through a scramble leading to a series of hilarious events.
A simple, shy and academically inclined Gopal, who comes
from a family that has a heritage of successful Hair oil business, learns the
differences in the two cultures, lives in the dilemma of how he would possibly
survive in this world where beef is type of food and where virginity is a sin.
In the middle of all his outlandish experiences, his friend Randy has swore to fix Gopal’s virginity and get him
to experience the sexual pleasures of life, which Gopal has been bereft of, so
far.
The book reviews the American culture with the spectacles of
an Indian student for whom mere existence in America is a challenge. The book
gives an account of battles that Gopal fights against his own insecurities, his
family directives and innate culture against the backdrop of racism, in a
light-hearted manner.
The humour exudes out of the interpretations and reactions
of the naive foreigner Gopal. His perception is penned in the letters he writes
to his family in his annihilated version of the English language.
His experience is definitely microcosm of the experiences of
an entire section of the Indian youth who have left their country for an
opportunity in foreign land and are struggling for survival.
