What a treasure that Kamdar chose to trace her family's path as a way to explore the past century's economic, military and sociological history.

If you choose to read this as a scholarly writing, you will gain great insight from Kamdar's subject. If instead you choose to read it as an epic cross-cultural tale, you won't be disappointed.

Or you could buy it just for the recipies.


"Part beauty mark, part brand, a legacy of tribal values."   August 4, 2003
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In this poignant and sometimes melancholy account of the passing of an era, Mira Kamdar tells the story of her beloved grandmother Motiba, a woman from the agrarian and pastoral culture of old Gujarat, showing how the changes in Motiba's life and family during the past seventy years are also emblematic of dramatic changes in Indian culture as a whole. Herself the daughter of Motiba's son Prabhakar (Pete) and Lois Christensen, the Danish-American cowgirl he married while a student in the United States in the 1960's, Kamdar is especially sensitive to nuances of culture, and she brings her Indian family to life within the context of the country's history--her grandparents' marriage, her grandfather's adoption of the values of Mahatma Gandhi, the emigration of the family to Burma to manage their businesses there in the 1930's, the bombing of Rangoon by the Japanese during World War II, the return to Bombay, and eventually, the emigration of several of Motiba's children to the United States.

As she describes her own life, the author shifts her focus to that of the American immigrant experience. The tales of Indian history which infused her life as a child visiting in India eventually give way completely to tales of her life in the United States, as she moves with her parents and siblings throughout the west following her father's job changes. The significance of the death of Gandhi on her grandmother's life yields its place to the effects of the death of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King on her parents' and her own life. Her father's desire to have his family "fit in" becomes more important to him than teaching them the language and culture in which he grew up.

Rich, warm, humorous, and earnest, Motiba's Tattoos recreates the universal story of an immigrant family's metamorphosis from one whose primary allegiance is to another culture to one in which opportunities to assimilate are recognized and embraced. In the process of becoming American, uniquely personal values may evolve and be treasured, while retention of the old traditions must become a conscious effort. What was an integral part of their family life, historically, evolves into pleasant memories and echoes of the old way of life as new generations appear--the final result of the Indian diaspora, which began in the mid-20th century and which continues, unabated, to the present day. Mary Whipple