What Mappillai - an Italian son-in-law in India is about

The audiobook of my memoir was made possible thanks to the amazing work and inspired talent of Matteo Marciano, Associate Professor of Practice of Music Technology, New York University, Abu Dhabi, head of Gazelien Records and the dedicated and creative contribution of NYUAD students Reema El-Kaiali, Toby Tinson, Sreerag Jyothish, Ivan Budnik, Aaron Marcus-Willers, Kacper J. Madejek, Kang Hee Huh, Bea Lazslo, Xinyue li. I thank them all for this memorable experience which is now released in chapters here on GlobalSpin.

(Here above, a video of my recording session in 2020 at NYUAD recording studios)

“Mappilai -an Italian son-in-law in India” (Simon & Schuster 2018)-  is the rollicking story of  a European living with his in-laws in urban Chennai and with his wife in the coastal village of Paramankeni. There, he finds himself in the company of fishermen and goat-herders, in a house where 3G asserts itself in a corner of the bathroom and electricity courses in fits and starts. 

At one level, Mappillai is deeply personal. With beguiling candour, Carlo tells of his struggle with contradictory responses to India—fascination and suspicion—and his awkward attempts at cruising through a maze of bribery, bureaucracy and traffic. The book offers a glimpse into the world of expats in India by introducing us to a host of colourful ‘firangi-friends’—from those who are overwhelmed by this nation’s noise and colour; to those who ‘go native’ in kurtas; to those who believe that India is where they can be dreamers, yogis or artists.

Over his decade-long stay in this nation, Carlo has witnessed a land in flux—from the gloom and doom of 2008 when the New India dream shattered, to the heady optimism of 2015 with promises of ‘acche din’, right up to today, marked by anti-Romeo and gau-rakshaks squads.

With wry humour and jollity, wisdom and acceptance, Mapillai offers an intimate capsule of contemporary Indian history—of the concomitant Hinduization and Westernization of India, intertwined with the Indianization of a European!

Press reviews:

Carlo Pizzati: intimate stranger (OPEN magazine)

In his first novel, Criminàl, Pizzati “explored the dark side of a difficult relationship” with his father. In Mappillai, he had the fortune of “describing a serene life with the woman” he loves. “It’s not at all easy,” he qualifies, “to write about happiness. I find it more challenging than describing something more widespread, like suffering. But it’s more fun.”

“An enjoyable, moving and worthwhile read” – Rohini Malur in Provoke Lifestyle Magazine

Books and Authors: A time of transition: Video Interview with Carlo Pizzati, author of “Mappillai – an Italian son-in-law in India” (The Hindustan Times)

In a deeply personal book, Italian journalist Carlo Pizzati, who lives with his Indian wife in a coastal village in Tamil Nadu, writes about the simultaneous Hinduization and Westernization of the nation, and about his own Indianization!

India’s Italian son-in-law talks about trying not to write an India book (The Telegraph)

“… it doesn’t claim any expertise and is certainly not an exercise in Indophilia. It’s a self-aware India book, about personal experiences, mildly extrapolated to larger issues, but working hard to undermine the Western gaze.”

Italian Mappillai (Times of India – Speaking Tree supplement)  In an endearing, personalised account, CARLO PIZZATI shares his experiences in India as son-in-law in a Chennai family

“Europeans go through different phases of discovery in India. There’s the imaginary India of the first phase, the India you have in your mind, that writers like Herman Hesse, Rabindranath Tagore or Rudyard Kipling have etched in your imagination along with some other books, movies or even cartoons; the India ‘that will change you’, that will make you see a new face of humanity, harsher at times, enlightening at others.”

The book is entertaining, philosophical and insightful all at once.

Pizzati’s journey through various cultures, countries in pursuit of some answers and his settling down in Paramakeni near Chennai finally for love, is well encapsulated.

‘Mappillai’ will make you ponder about the harsh realities we are facing and leave you nodding in
agreement with Pizzati and the ‘point of view’ that he brings not as an expat, but as an immigrant.

“Come home to the Coromandel” – profile by Deepa Alexander in The Hindu

“a lyrical, stream-of-consciousness narrative.”

“The book was a decade in the making, and took a year-and-a-half to write,” says Carlo. “There is a lot of race identity in it, about the India I first encountered and the India I see now. It is the journey of 10 years of a white European in this country who becomes a local without having to go native.”

A Venetian in Madras, or, being a ‘whitey’ in a changing India (excerpt in Scroll.in )

“After months of living in a part of India that is not yet ruined by the plague of tourism, months on end of seeing mostly Tamil people, Tamil smiles on Tamil faces, when you do finally spot the occasional pale, waxy-skinned Australian, German, or British tourist attempting to blend in by wearing a hippy tie dye, bangles and necklaces, dreadlocks or braids or simply wearing the comfortable uniform of the Patagonia international army, the mosquito-repelling baggy trousers, the pink, clip-on fanny packs, men with pony-tails and capri pants, or hiding under the wide brimmed jungle-style Crocodile Dundee hats in downtown Chennai, you think: oh, look, look, whiteys!”

The Hindu – R. Krithika Oct. 7th, 2018

Mappillai is part love story, part memoir, part philosophical musings… all of which are tied together with wry humour, some grumpiness and a large dose of acceptance… Pizzati offers shrewd observations on caste and class differences, the yawning gap between the rich and the poor, attitudes of foreigners, bribery….

Excerpt in Mint Oct. 5th, 2018

Writing about India is like writing about the mafia. It’s like owning a pharmacy. Everyone is bound to always get sick, there’ll always be a need for medicines. A never-ending, lucrative business.

India’s Italian son-in-law, Carlo Pizzati, releases memoir  (The Times of India)

“A light-hearted memoir”

Deccan Herald Year in Books: “Humorous often irritable honesty” (Dec. 30th, 2018)

“Besides a little about his earlier life, and what happens to him in village Paramankeni and environs, this book is also about Carlo Pizzati’s conclusions about all kinds of things in a complex land. While he stoutly claims not to be Wendy Doniger, William Dalrymple, Patrick French, – or even Megasthenes, Xuanzang, Al Biruni (and so on) and therefore this CANNOT be ‘an India book’, he does have his own engaging theories about the way things work here. […] In slow, contemplative sentences and in rapid exclamatory ones, his prose and his theme switch rapidly. Perhaps this is just a modern book, aimed at the sophisticated short-attention-span reader. But it is rather effervescent at times (like a stereotypical Italian?)” Saaz Aggarwal in Trenzy magazine Jan 11, 2019. “

India offers a great sense of harmony: Carlo Pizzati

Interview with Sudha G Tilak (Lonely Planet  January 2019)

“It’s a familiar story, yet quite out of the ordinary.

It’s a tale of exploration, and a love story.”

Prannay, The Hindustan Times January 28th, 2019

ITALIAN MEDIA COVERAGE OF “MAPPILLAI”

Il Venerdì di Repubblica 23 novembre 2018

La Stampa (Cultura)

Il Giornale di Vicenza