Author: Anjan Sundaram
I am fascinated with the bio of the author, Anjan Sundaram. Here is a brilliant young kid, who graduated from Yale with a degree in Mathematics and turned down a lucrative job offer from Goldman Sachs to pursue a career in Journalism. And how do you think he started? He bought a one-way ticket to Congo, a place where more than 5 million people have died since the start of the second Congo War in 1998. Congo is blessed with an abundance of mineral resources, and Anjan summarizes this well with the Congolese legend which states that "God, tired after creating the world, stopped at this part of the earth and dropped all his sacks of riches".
If you are looking for something that describes the vast natural resources or political climate in Congo, this is not the book for you. However, it is a great coming of age story of a brilliant Indian kid who decides to embark on a career in Journalism. The challenges Anjan faces in getting started and the first hand experiences he has living as a paying guest with a family that is struggling to make ends meet, is brilliantly depicted with an authenticity that leaps off the pages. His encounter with street kids in an inner city in Kinshasa is vivid and unsettling. I lived vicariously through his writing and learned a great deal of what everyday life in Kinshasa is like.
I am fascinated with the bio of the author, Anjan Sundaram. Here is a brilliant young kid, who graduated from Yale with a degree in Mathematics and turned down a lucrative job offer from Goldman Sachs to pursue a career in Journalism. And how do you think he started? He bought a one-way ticket to Congo, a place where more than 5 million people have died since the start of the second Congo War in 1998. Congo is blessed with an abundance of mineral resources, and Anjan summarizes this well with the Congolese legend which states that "God, tired after creating the world, stopped at this part of the earth and dropped all his sacks of riches".
If you are looking for something that describes the vast natural resources or political climate in Congo, this is not the book for you. However, it is a great coming of age story of a brilliant Indian kid who decides to embark on a career in Journalism. The challenges Anjan faces in getting started and the first hand experiences he has living as a paying guest with a family that is struggling to make ends meet, is brilliantly depicted with an authenticity that leaps off the pages. His encounter with street kids in an inner city in Kinshasa is vivid and unsettling. I lived vicariously through his writing and learned a great deal of what everyday life in Kinshasa is like.
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