By Shoba Narayan

In the opening scene of this book, Shoba is moving into her new luxury apartment building in Bangalore waiting for the elevator. When the doors open, she is greeted by a massive cow wedged inside the small space and nobody around is even remotely surprised by this. I had a feeling I was going to like it. You learn all about the deep importance of cows in the Indian culture and the myriad benefits of milk and all other byproducts of the cow. You will be in the grocery store and understand what the new A2 milk is! All that is woven with the story of the wonderful friendship between Shoba, high caste, highly educated, very wealthy, westernized wife of a corporate exec and Sarala the Milk Lady who tends her cows and sells her fresh milk across the street. It is a wonderful, complex, fascinating relationship and unlike anything we’d see in America.