Pradeep Anand

HOUSTON

An Indian in Cowboy Country, a debut novel by Pradeep Anand of Sugar Land, will be released at the Stafford Civic Center on Dec. 2. The program includes social hour beginning at 5 p.m., enactment of parts of the book at 6:30 p.m., and Indian and Classic Rock music concerts from 7:15 p.m.

During the book release program, two actors—Yaksha Bhatt and Amit Patel—will enact/dramatize excerpts from An Indian in Cowboy Country.

An Indian in Cowboy Country is about an Asian Indian engineer discovering his personal and professional potential in the heart of Texas and flourishing in the United States. The book celebrates two facets. The first is the assimilation experience of a typical educated, professional, middle-class Indian immigrant. The other sources of celebration are ethnic diversity, the city of Houston, and the oil and gas industry.

The stringed short story, episodic structure makes An Indian in Cowboy Country easy to read, providing convenient stopping or resting points in the narrative. The book strings together distinct episodes and yet has a continuous narrative.

The protagonist shares the author’s ethnic background, and works in the oil and gas industry. But the stories, the incidents, and the characters are pure fiction, says the author.

“Pradeep Anand has put together a collection of highly enjoyable stories about the many challenges of being a brown-skinned techie in Texas. Immigrants everywhere will relate to this perceptive and relevant book,” says the award-winning author and poet, Chitra Divakaruni.

“Businesses, business schools, and cultural studies departments at schools and colleges will benefit immensely from this book. Pradeep Anand weaves, with fascinating simplicity, warm and authentic stories about Asian Indian immigrants and their experiences in America,” says Prof. Amar Bhidé, the Lawrence D. Glaubinger Professor of Business at Columbia University.

“An Indian in Cowboy Country is a must read. Pradeep has done an amazing job, with great simplicity, in chronicling an Asian Indian’s journey in an alien society, simultaneously maintaining one’s cultural moorings, and moral center,” says Nandan Nilekani, CEO of Infosys.

Pradeep Anand was born in Bombay and is a graduate Indian Institute of Technology , Bombay. He lived the first half of his life in Bombay before migrating to Houston.

Anand is president of Seeta Resources, a management consulting firm focusing on turnaround and growth of engineering and technology companies.

An Indian in Cowboy Country published by iUniverse can be ordered at local Barnes & Noble stores, and online at www.amazon.com and www. iuniverse.com.

For more information, visit www.pradeepanand. com.