It is often said that geography is destiny. My Mother Called Me Unni is the story of one man who left his homeland and his family in the 1960s to find his own destiny in the melting pot of the United States. The book was written by Dr. Venugopal Menon and published by Outskirts Press.

Beginning in the late 1960s, hundreds of thousands of people migrated to the U.S. from India, including thousands of physicians. Today, Indian Americans are the wealthiest and most educated minority group in the country. What drove them to leave their homeland? What values and experiences did they bring with them? And how are they transforming America read more…

 

What makes this book unique, informative and interesting – by Indo American News

• It is one of the first such publications from over 3 million Indians who have chosen the USA as their domicile.
• It is the story of perhaps the ‘most educated, most successful and the most industrious’ group of migrants in the history of America.
• It is a unique orientation for the readers to know how life was in the pre-independent, colonial, British India during the global depression times; and about its rich, colorful, cultural customs, festivals and traditions.
• It is the fairy-tale of a child who got his first pair of footwear in his 6th grade and who studied under the light of a kerosene lamp, managing to become a doctor, crossing the seas to get over to America, establishing as a successful physician and the president of a nationally known medical clinic.
• It is the narrative of the first wave of immigrants from the subcontinent who brought in, initiated and then established awareness of ancient Indian philosophy and culture in the cowboy country.
• It is also the chronicle of a typical migrant who contributed much to enrich the country he has chosen as his domicile, thus presenting a bold case on the political dialog scene and the extreme viewpoints in our ongoing presidential debates.