Richard Crasta, Author

When I was in my late teens, I used to read Punch magazine, and one of my favorite writers was Alan Coren, who published a humor collection titled Golfing for Cats. It turned out that the book had nothing to do with either golfing or cats; but golfing and cats were the two hottest subjects on the bestseller list at that time, so he married the two and made up the title. (Alan Coren's book ended up doing quite well.) My story is totally different. Neither cats, goats, nor Mahatma Gandhi are particularly hot at this moment (the Mahatma, if resurrected, would be horrified by Donald Trump and prefer to return to his grave), so the Alan Coren anecdote only partly explains the title of my new book: The Mahatma, the Goats, and Young Cats , all of which do occur in my collection of humor and satire, but are not its main subjects: this being a diverse humor collection ranging from Jesus to Ronald Reagan, from Indian politics to American nukes and deficits, from Adam and Eve to modern pu...

Impressing the Whites is a book with universal resonance, one that has been taught at an American university, and also in South Africa. And yet, it is known to very few outside a tiny circle in India and among a few Indians in North America. Why?  [You can download the book here if you wish, or buy it from other channels.] An Indian television host said to me, "We speak of it privately, among ourselves, but we dare not raise the subject in public." Why?  Because the wrath of the giants might be visited upon them? Possibly. Life is too short not to have a good time while it lasts. And yet, life is also too short to live it as a complete coward, even though prudence, at times, is called for (prudence can also be an excuse for cowardice).  And so, I dared. And the result: "Impressing the Whites." and a host of other books, including, "When David Davidar Drank My Wine"--which can now be downloaded directly from my site. But some people, who a...

I, for one, am grateful for "Mother's Day," which did not exist when I was growing up in India, and which I was introduced to only in America, where it has near-religious significance. Though nowhere as religious as Mother's Day (and possibly that's fair, because we don't spend nine months in our father's "womb", straining his resources and eating his food), Father's Day has begun to mean something to me too. Why? Because I'm a father--a proud father of three sons, whom I think of with love especially on this day. If you think Father's Day ought to be abolished, ask any father for his opinion. Fatherhood does not get the attention it deserves, and here is a day when people at least spend a few moments to take time off from the current obsessions of their culture, the media pap--nip slips, wardrobe malfunctions, stained dresses--to think about their fathers, and perhaps to wish them. (Other than that no father has ever given birth to ...

I just saw Railway Man, the movie based on the bestselling book: the true story of Eric Lomax, a former British prisoner-of-war who decided to confront his nightmares by confronting his Japanese torturer, Takashi Nagase, in the flesh. It's a fascinating movie, with a surprising ending. In fact, most reviews of this movie do hint at the ending, so the story is actually in the telling, in the progress of Lomax from fury and terror to forgiveness and understanding. In Eaten by the Japanese: The Memoir of an Unknown Indian Prisoner of War, my late father, John Baptist Crasta, tells his own story. For him, the only possible therapeutic outlet was the act of writing the book. He, like thousands of other Indians, some dead, never got to meet the Japanese who ill-treated him. However, the Indians did engage in a form of forgiveness, as shown in this section from my father's book: On 27 August, we were taken to Romali, about thirty miles from Rabaul, to be “handed over.” ...

Assuming you're an adventurous, open-minded reader who hates following the herd, perhaps you may like a few recommendations from among my many books? Well, here goes: "Rife with inventive comic imagery as “A Confederacy of Dunces,” insightful, subtly searing as “Catcher in the Rye."--Amazon.com 5-star review The Revised Kama Sutra is, despite its name, about much, much more than sex; but if you prefer the portion of it that deals with childhood, then I suggest One Little Indian, which is much shorter, and in which the emphasis is much more on childhood and growing up . Shorter, and very different, is the next book, described as "hysterical" and "for the rebel in you" (equally funny, if you don't want the "parenting" parody, is The Empire Bites Back), on some platforms under the pseudonym "Benny Profane." The Empire Bites Back includes all the humor essays of the above, except for the wisecracking child; it is als...