Rating: 
Summary: Karma Cola maintains its fizz...
Review: I've come to this book a little late in its publishing history, and though the story is dated in terms of the mass of seekers who descended on India in the 60's and 70's westerners still seek the "wisdom of the east," and this Karma Cola has not lost its fizz. This is an angry, critical, sarcastic look at the rage for inner peace that has driven many seekers to psychiatric care, and many gurus to the bank. It's also a book filled with sadness as Gita Mehta both castigates and mourns - for her country's spiritual traditions stacked into the supermarket of the latest craze; and for the naive who believe hard won self-knowledge can be had with the touch of a teacher's hand - or a certain less visible appendage. It's finally true that if you can't find peace and love at home you probably won't find it in India either. Besides, six thousand years of spiritual and cultural history just shouldn't be toyed with.
Rating: 
Summary: Another thought
Review: In addition to what I've already written, let me also state that the book is also a criticism of Indians who capitalize on westerners' need for spiritual fulfillment. On a personal note about the Chapter in which the illegal route from Pakistan to India is discovered and the foreigners coming through that route by taking advantage of the hospitality of the villagers, this is not uncommon even today. I've had several people stay at my house who basically used me as a cheap place to stay and without even thanking me for cooking for them or providing them with a roof over their heads. The ability to take unashamedly persists. Hospitality is one of the greatest things about Indian/South Asian culture, but as Mehta demonstrates in the chapter, it also exposes Indians to a great deal of abuse as anyone who's had an ungracious house guest can testify.
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Summary: Not the usual view of India
Review: Karma Cola is definitely required reading for any westerner interested in things Indian or perhaps contemplating hitting the Dharma trail. Its recognition that misunderstanding goes both ways (eg. the anecdotes about gurus treatment of their Western students) is a good reality check for those of us whose spiritual search has taken us there. Ms Mehta gently reminds us that trying to absorb 5000 years of experience and living may take a little more than a few weeks of squat loos, and some Om Mani Padme Hums. This is the first time I've ever read a book about the move of Eastern thought into the West which was not written by a Westerner. In some ways sobering, it is also witty and at times poignant. By the way, an earlier reviewer lambasted the author for attributing the wrong language to clerks from Kerala. That mistake has been fixed in the edition I have (Minerva 1997 paperback).
Rating: 
Summary: This book is not good.
Review: Ms. Mehta is undoubtedly the best Indian author alive! I dothink the person who wrote the two sentence review probably does not know the meaning of 'trash'. 'Trash' is the heaps and heaps of books that get published every year in the US and somehow make it to the NY Times best seller list just beacuse Oprah thinks it is a good book or because it can be made into a tv movie. This book is a classic. Her use of the language is extra-ordinary. She touches on the most 'Indian' of values with a great sense of humor and almost trivialises them. She makes you really think about issues that matter and drove(still drive) thousands of Westerners to India. She has also done a great job of contrasting the Eastern and Western view of life, death and everything spiritual.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: Ms. Mehta is undoubtedly the best Indian author alive! I dothink the person who wrote the two sentence review probably does not know the meaning of 'trash'. 'Trash' is the heaps and heaps of books that get published every year in the US and somehow make it to the NY Times best seller list just beacuse Oprah thinks it is a good book or because it can be made into a tv movie. This book is a classic. Her use of the language is extra-ordinary. She touches on the most 'Indian' of values with a great sense of humor and almost trivialises them. She makes you really think about issues that matter and drove(still drive) thousands of Westerners to India. She has also done a great job of contrasting the Eastern and Western view of life, death and everything spiritual.
Rating:
Summary: A 'scholarly' (not!) book
Review: Nothing but trash! I can not believe that this stupid book is recommended reading by Lonely Planet!
Rating:
Summary: Sucks!!!
Review: Pardon me, but the author's ignorance is showing. The book has very little to do with reality and panders to every fear and stereotype in the mind of an Western audience. Here is an instance of the author's ignorance, a quote from Chapter VI titled Behind the Urine Curtain, Section 3 (pg 84 in the Vintage paper back edition)-she is talking about the different people who use the local trains in Mumbai- "There to the left is a clutch of stiletto-heeled and skirted Goan secretaries, exchanging office gossip in Portuguese. Close behind them are the Kerala clerks in white bush shirts and gray trousers, conversing in (emphasis mine)*KANNADA*". Now anyone with an iota of knowledge about India and its languages will know that the people of Kerala speak Malayalam and not Kannada which is the language of the neighboring Karnataka. Malayalam and Kannada are not obscure tongues but are each spoken by atleast a few million people. Someone who doesnt even know this should NOT set out writing a book about India. Makes one wonder at the autheticity of the other anecdotes in the book. Throwing in some high sounding philosophical jargon does not make a book intellectual either (Chapter XIII- Om is Where the Heart is). In all a very pathetic attempt to make a quick buck out of the "mystic" of the East. She seems to be the one living up to her book's title- Karma Cola- Marketing the Mystic East.
Rating: 
Summary: A rather cranky view of westerners in India.
Review: The author has some fun describing the follies and adventures of westerners in India, but falls into the "more Hindu than thou" mode a bit.
An interesting read.
Rating: 
Summary: Snide and Condescending
Review: The underlying premise of this book is that foreigners who are drawn to Indian gurus are a bunch of gullible fools and Indian gurus pull the wool over everyone's eyes to make money. The writer is obviously coming from a westernized perspective of an Indian embarassed about the "dirt" of her own culture. But without the marketing of the Eastern mystical traditions, her book wouldn't have been such a success, would it? Now that globalism has put a Pizza Hut on every corner in New Delhi and all those "dirty" Gurus are gone, replaced by the slick types like Deepak Chopra, hope Gita is feeling much better.
Rating:
Summary: An Essential Book for Travelers to India
Review: This book is a must-read for those travelers bound for India, especially for those seeking enlightenment. I lived in Varanasi for a year, and I met many travelers who believed that India was some sort of textbook Hindu holy land. These people lived in their ideas, creating a shield around them that kept real India out. Karma Cola helps show that India isn't a book-ideal made up of gurus and yogis performing divine-inspired miracles on every street corner. It shows that India, like any other country, is made up of people: helpful people and crooks, prude people and perverts. If you go to India, don't go there to experience some sort of religious miracle. Go there to see real India and meet real Indians, and read this book before you go!
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