Meenakshi Ahamed’s book Indian Genius: The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America is interesting, timely and important. The book is interesting because biographical sketches are “history without theory”. It is timely because immigration is a hot-button subject in the West and with the arrival of two plane loads of deported Indians from America, some in handcuffs, it is also of relevance to India and ipso facto to every “source country”. It is important because through the stories of these hugely successful Indians, one can discern nuggets of experience that might help develop a “non-zero sum proposition” to make “migration (can) work for all”, the title of an article written by Amy Pope, the Director General of the UN International Organisation for Migration, in the latest issue of the Foreign Affairs.

Ahamed profiles familiar names under four categories.

The “techies” include Kanwal Rekhi, founder of TiE, the India-US entrepreneurs club to foster startups; Vinod Khosla, the founder of Sun Microsystems and one of the most successful venture capitalists in Silicon Valley and “company men” like Shantanu Narayen (Adobe) and Satya Nadella (Microsoft); the “healers” or the “medicine men” that include the polymath doctor of alternative medicine and mindfulness and best selling author Deepak Chopra; the younger but comparably gifted doctors, writers and researchers, Siddhartha Mukerjee, Atul Gawande and Abraham Verghese; the “influencers” or those that have impacted........

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