PORT ORCHARD, Wash., Sept. 20, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- India has a vast population drenched in a rich culture, but it includes more than just the traditions of people native to the subcontinent. Foreign cultures have mixed with ancient ways to create a unique history, which Patricia McGready-Buffardi details in her new memoir, Hearts Divided In the Raj (now available through AuthorHouse).
Like a bowl of "pish pash," a mushy, tasty concoction of overcooked rice and lentils popular with Anglo-Indian children, the book examines a hodgepodge of Indian history during British rule and after independence. McGready-Buffardi spans four generations of her "mixed breed" family and takes readers from the barren plains of central India to the islands in the south. Hearts Divided In the Raj peers into the early years of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway and looks in on the hard life of her stationmaster grandfather who lived near the tracks. As a child, she listened to her grandfather's stories about his childhood and his own father's passion for the rise of the railways. Through these simple moments of history, she paints an intimate portrait of a pioneering family.
McGready-Buffardi also relates the tumultuous times of her childhood when the British left India to its own devices. Before independence, she lived with her family on an island in southern India. Her father, an officer in the Indian Navy, fell into agony when the country gained independence and split into two. These simple political acts caused a rift in Anglo-Indian hearts throughout the subcontinent, writes McGready-Buffardi. Her family moved from port to port, and she relates their comedic and often frustrating journeys.
For two decades of her life, McGready-Buffardi was caught between two worlds, British and Indian. Hearts Divided In the Raj relates a story with a detailed historical perspective and intensely personal moments preserved for posterity.
"(T)he memoir is a prism of days lost forever on the subcontinent since the Anglo-Indian race is fast dwindling, with intermarriages of the new generation around the globe. In short, the race is almost extinct," McGready-Buffardi says.
McGready-Buffardi has lived in the U.S. since the 1960s. She has a bachelor's degree in English and has worked as a freelance columnist for the New Orleans Times Picayune. She and her husband, Lou, have traveled extensively and now reside in Washington. Hearts Divided In the Raj is her first book.
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