Ashok Malhotra

The Golden Immigrant Ashok Malhotra

THE YEAR IS 1963. Raj has just completed his bachelor of civil engineering degree from the Delhi College of Engineering in Delhi, India. His father died when he was eight. His mother had to juggle her meagre income between paying the milkman, the grocer, the landlord and the school fees. The day, when the neighbourhood grocer refused to extend him credit because the prior month's bill had not been paid, has left an indelible mark on his psyche. Armed with his degree and a few years' experience, Raj decides to break the chains of lower middle class living and venture abroad as an immigrant. And then, one fateful evening, at a dance party at the YMCA on Drummond Street in Montreal, Canada, he meets a beautiful young French Canadian girl, Nicole Bedard, a stock broker; and his life would never be the same again. The Golden Immigrant, with the backdrop of stock market, real estate and construction industries, takes on big themes; this brilliantly crafted story uncoils the hopes, fears, aspirations, joys, triumphs and sorrows of an immigrant. Yet, nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it; the adaptation to the new culture, the loneliness, the letters from home, the memories of floating boats in the puddles of monsoon rains, the urge to accumulate wealth and the temptations of the permissive society.