BOOMER. MISFIT. Same Difference
By Lolita Chattoraj Sengupta
Lolita’s first book of columns about her life is packed with her sometimes acerbic wit but with wisdom thrown in almost sotto voce. You will love her catchy multifaceted and relatable anecdotes of an intercontinental life, with all its related issues. Her life has had more than its fair share of trials and tribulations, but she manages to let her trademark humour rule.
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About BOOMER. MISFIT. Same Difference
Lolita's first delightful book is about her life through her twenties to fifties; recounting her funny escapades, from watching Amitabh Bachchan from the gent's toilet window in Wembley, to facing subtle and subliminal racism, and looking for work in the UK; from her utter exhaustion with her prematurely born child to her heartbreak now that he has gone overseas for his further studies.
Her columns are hilarious but hard hitting, and she has a self-deprecating humour rarely found in Indian authors. Her experiences are pedestrian, but her observations acute, and disarmingly honest. If you have had any multicultural experience in the West and in India, or are generally fumbling through life, making mistakes and not learning from them, you will love this book.
Book launch
Jayant Kripalani, noted writer, film, TV, and theatre personality launched the paperback on November 26, 2022 at Kolkata.
Articles
Pictures from the launch event
Praise for the book
A breezy, fun read and yet soulful!
Reviewed in India on 3 April 2023
This is a book only a true Indian desi can write, that too a true Indian desi Female ! It’s non pretentious, warm, witty, insightful - having you smiling all through the smooth and quick read ! It has the right amount of earthiness and worldly wise blending in very well. Congratulations Lolita ! This is a hit !
Reviewed in India on 20 September 2022
Lali has pulled off a rare feat in Indian writing. Dead pan straight faced self deprecatingly humorous writing, a rarety amongst Indian writers. The struggles with the multifarious English accents, their idiosyncracies are all brought out with the lightest of touches. You will feel that you've known the writer forever, so easily does she take you along. Heartily recommended.
Excellent book. Acerbic wit makes you wonder whether she is serious or joking.
Reviewed in India on 14 September 2022
The wit is acerbic, the anecdotes amusing, the questions thoughtful. It's an unputdownable book. My generation and those who have some exposure to British and Kolkata lifestyles will fall in love with it immediately.
Reviewed in India on 29 January 2023
Lucid, fun and a quick read. I finished reading it in one sitting.
Reviewed in India on 7 January 2023
It’s an easy reading that takes you through the various situations the author find herself. Highly recommended to understand generational gaps, racial dynamics and personal insights of the author with a dash of humor everywhere.
Unputdownable. Wit and humour at its best
Reviewed in India on 28 November 2022
Immense respect for the author who looks at life and the world around us with such dry wit and humour. Her words made me roll with laughter to the utter confusion of others in the room. The book is all about herself but one can resonate so much with her experiences. How did she notice all those finer twists and turns in day to day activities in lives with such depth, yet keeping the laughter alive in the pages of this book! Highly recommended as it's a fantastic read.
Read it and also gift it to many, as this book needs to be read.
Reviewed in India on 9 October 2022
Very well written, layered, nuances to discover when you re-read
Reviewed in India on 26 June 2023
Its a pure delightful read. Absolutely relatable for the 40/50+s, painted with the right humour and wit which often leave you with the gleeful tears rolling down!! Looking foward for more.
Utterly delightful
Reviewed in India on 9 September 2022
Although Lolita Sengupta is considerably younger than I am, her writing touches many chords within my being. Funny, poignant, perceptive, and above all, self-deprecating, reading this book is like being with an old friend who really gets you. It is also an interesting record of social change across the last few decades. It also makes you question your own thinking versus your actions. A compact, rich treasure of a book, which mostly makes you chuckle.
Reviewed in India on 10 January 2023
One can’t but fall for the author’s acute self-awareness that is both, helplessly honest and hilarious, to the point that reading this book is a relentless chuckle-fest. But this isn’t wit for the sake of wit, rather what we have here is a sharp eye and a merciless pen that turns as effortlessly upon the world around, as the world within. Her unfiltered narration transforms everyday experiences and makes them such enjoyable reading that it feels like one long adda session over cha shingara. I have so many favourites from among her many priceless anecdotes: What she thought ‘lol’ meant, the first thought that entered her mind as she saw her husband walk in through the door in a foreign land, said husband’s proposal to her and her response to it, how she tries to zoom in on medicine labels, her unsparing commentary on her husband, her son's on her…and so many little things that felt very new and very familiar at the same time. The tone of the book also shifts markedly—in its unflinchingly honest reflections on pregnancy, motherhood, and a woman’s experience of balancing work outside and inside home. Not lively humour here, but the same uncompromising and sobering honesty. Here’s someone who can confront the hypocrisies of the world around, the follies and casual cruelties of loved ones, and her own fears and flaws. So much of life’s fulness, with its absurdities and joys, our anticipation and anxiety, our longing and our fears, can be found in this book. To wear one’s wisdom lightly and accept life in good grace and good humour are no small feats, and very refreshing. Do pick up this book, which I enjoyed reading very much.
Vee
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful
Reviewed in the United States on 28 November 2022
Such an engaging and witty read! The book draws you into the author’s world and makes you feel welcomed, like a cherished friend she’s having a conversation with at some cafe over a steaming cup of coffee!! I so enjoyed the self deprecating humor and the underlying warmth in Lali’s narrative that weaves the story of a life that has so many relatable moments.
Anthony Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 December 2022
Well written and funny, congratulations Lolita