The Butterfly Generation

Palash Krishna Mehrotra, in The Butterfly Generation, paints a compelling portrait of young urban Indians today, wherein the memories and experiences of a bygone socialist era are contrasted with the sights and sounds of a contemporary Americanized India. Part memoir, part travelogue, part commentary, The Butterfly Generation is the first book about this New India written from an insider’s perspective. Half of India’s population is under the age of 25 and by 2020 the average Indian will be only 29 years old and it is their stories that this books tells. The stories include that of a doomed call centre worker, a drug dealer on the make, an airline pilot, Versova scriptwriters, watching Doordarshan in the eighties, discovering pop music on short wave radio, the coming of MTV, the rise of heavy metal bands, the Gay Pride March, Valentine’s Day, ragging in Indian hostels, McJobs and the single life. The Butterfly Generation swings back and forth between Hindi and English, Bollywood and Hollywood, the little black dress and the six yard sari.