Non-Fiction
ASHWINI DEVARE is an award-winning author and broadcast journalist. Ashwini worked in television news for 15 years before turning to full-time writing. She was an on-air reporter and producer for the BBC’s Asia Business Report in Singapore and a presenter for CNBC Asia in the mid-90s, when the channel first entered the Indian market.
Ashwini’s latest book, Always a Foreigner: A Memoir, is a coming-of-age memoir that chronicles her nomadic journey through six countries, against the backdrop of historic political events. It was previously published as Lost at 15, Found at 50, was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize 2020 and won the Singapore Literature Prize Readers’ Favourite English Book Award 2020.
Her first book, Batik Rain, was a collection of short stories that explore the theme of displacement and cross-cultural conflict. Ashwini has a Master’s degree in broadcast journalism from American University in Washington DC. She has two sons, one who is studying chemistry, and the other, a budding filmmaker. When Ashwini isn’t writing, she is either reading or walking. She lives in Singapore.
ALWAYS A FOREIGNER: A Memoir by Ashwini Devare
The journey was like the voyage of Sinbad, full of adventure.
Running up a Himalayan hillside pulling leeches off her legs, covering drug busts in a gritty US suburb to uncovering racism under the pure Alpine snow, Ashwini Devare’s fascinating memoir is about growing up as an Indian Foreign Service child in the 70s and 80s. From the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain to Burma’s Bamboo Curtain, Ashwini Devare lived in six countries by the time she was fifteen.
In each country, she had a front-row seat to tumultuous global events that redefined the twentieth century, from the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri to the integration of Sikkim into India, the assassination of Indira Gandhi to student-led democracy in South Korea.
Ashwini Devare’s journey from diplomat’s daughter to broadcast journalist was marked by constant changes and upheaval. ‘Fitting in’ was the mantra for survival.
This is a remarkable story of an Indian family that faces the challenges of love, loss and separation with resilience, optimism and courage. A family that would continually be flung from their comfort zones into alien, unfamiliar lands, always holding hands to soften the landings. In the background was the constant comfort of the Indian flag—providing reassurance as the family navigated their way in foreign lands.
Two very charismatic and flamboyant personalities got together and kept everyone hooked with their conversation. The very lively, zestful individual and amazing orator R J Nisha as the moderator of the talk took us into the life journey of the award winning author Mrs Ashwini Devare and her book ‘Always a Foreigner’. The book is the Indian version of her prize winning book ,’Lost at 15, Found at 50’. In which she gives an account of how her life has been spent traversing through various countries witnessing many historical events like the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and the student led movement in South Korea. It is a story of how the whole family has together been through the constantly changing circumstances by gracefully adapting to them. Despite all the challenges and difficulties they faced in the foreign lands they managed to keep the patriotism towards their country India alive within them.