Press Releases

Penguin India releases the first global Indian book, inspired by Sulekha.com

NEW DELHI, India and AUSTIN, US, Nov 24: The last decade has marked the emergence of a new Indian: free, globally mobile, confident, successful, progressive yet proud of the heritage, culturally diverse but unmistakably Indian. Penguin Indian today launched the Black, White and Brown: The Best of Sulekha.com, a compilation of 42 delightfully diverse pieces that together represent this new and powerful global Indian spirit and made possible by the Internet.

David Davidar, CEO of Penguin India, said, "Black, White and Brown: The Best of Sulekha.com is really the first Net book as it brings together for the first time, thanks to the Internet, the composite experience of Indians from around the world. This has been made possible by the powerful medium of the Internet and by the vibrant literary community Sulekha.com has succeeded in seeding and nurturing. What is even more remarkable is that the writings in this book are from non-professional writers who write purely for the love of the art. We are excited about this partnership with the hugely popular Sulekha.com and we see this as just the beginning of a series of such exciting books, inspired and enabled by this great new interactive medium of the Internet."

Black, White and Brown: The Best of Sulekha.com is a delightfully varied and collection of essays, stories and humour, authored by 42 non-professional, yet remarkable, writers from various walks of life drawn from India, Pakistan, United States, Britain, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Ivory Coast, Canada, Bangladesh and others. They include college students, professors, CEOs, IAS officers, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, physicians, social service leaders and homemakers. These pieces have been selected by the global Sulekha community from over 1200 published on Sulekha since 1998.

Satya Prabhakar, President and CEO of Sulekha.com, said, "Sulekha has evolved from a tiny webzine to the biggest online community for Indians worldwide by being an open and free platform for expression and interaction. Thanks to the creative contributions of tens of thousands of Indians from over 50 countries and from various walks of life, Sulekha captures like no other the amazingly diverse, dynamic and delightful portrait of the world of modern India and Indians. Penguin is a pioneering global leader in publishing and Penguin India has led the way in successfully championing Indian writers and literature. This valuable partnership with Penguin gets this unique and exciting global Indian experience enabled by the Net to the entire Indian subcontinent in print." Sulekha Select, the US edition of the book, is available for sale on Amazon.com and on Sulekha.com at http://www.sulekha.com/select.

About Sulekha.com

Sulekha.com is the flagship service of Smart Information Worldwide, Inc., a leading Internet media and services company with operations in US and India. Sustained by the creative contributions of thousands of Indians from over 50 countries, Sulekha has become the biggest online community for Indians, winning the unexampled loyalty of hundreds of thousands of visitors and acclaim from the media. In addition, Sulekha is also the leading provider of ticketing, membership and fundraising services to Indian organizations and is today the biggest online ticketer for Indian events and movies in North America. Web address: http://www.sulekha.com

Contact:Satya Prabhakar, Sulekha.com, satya@sulekha.net, 512-762-7317

About Penguin India

Penguin Books - http://www.penguinbooksindia.com -- India is the largest English-language trade in the Subcontinent. Headquartered in New Delhi, it is a joint venture between Penguin Publishing Company Ltd (a member of Pearson, the international media conglomerate) and ABP Ltd, the Calcutta-based Ananda Bazar Patrika newspaper group. Founded in 1985, Penguin India began in October 1987 with six titles, and in the year 2000 the company published 120 titles that reflect the diversity and range of its publishing list. Among the significant titles from Penguin India in the recent past are Vikram Seth's An Equal Music, The Company of Women by Khushwant Singh, The Mammaries of the Welfare State by Upamanyu Chatterjee, Speedpost by Shobha De, India 2020 by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and India Unbound by Gurcharan Das.

Contact:Thomas Abraham, Penguin India, thomas.abraham@penguin-india.com, 91-11-6494401