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Ode to Lata
Banker by day and denizen of Los Angeles’ clubs by night, the protagonist of Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla’s groundbreaking, critically-acclaimed novel has left behind a tempestuous childhood in post-colonial Kenya, the mother who raised him on a steady diet of Bollywood cinema, an emotionally abusive bisexual lover, and inescapable memories of his father’s violent death at the hands of a mistress. Passionate and unflinchingly honest, Ode to Lata scavenges the depths of one man’s misguided and relentless search for love in a world of emotionally void encounters and tangled memories. All the while Ali’s story is intertwined with the unraveling of his parents’ own doomed relationship and the film music of Bollywood’s eminent singer, Lata Mangeshkar. And it is this hopelessly romantic music that scores their tormented lives and goads them to pursue love through chaos and ecstasy. This commemorative 10th Anniversary Edition includes Dhalla’s short story, A about a poignant last night between two lovers facing separation.
322 pages, Paperback
First published February 5, 2002
2 people are currently reading
140 people want to read
About the author
Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla
6 books18 followersLos Angeles-based writer Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla was born in Kenya, where, at 13 years old, he published his first article in the national magazine VIVA.
His critically-acclaimed debut novel, "Ode to Lata", was hailed by the LA Times as "an accomplishment" and The Library Journal as "brilliant." An excerpt premiered in the anthology, Contours of the Heart (Rutgers), and went on to win the 18th Annual American Book Award. The novel created milestones as the first South Asian gay novel ever to be reviewed by the LA Times Book Review and to be excerpted by LGBT landmark magazine, Genre. It was also the first account of the South Asian gay experience from an author from the African continent.
Dhalla went on to adapt, produce and co-direct the novel into the feature film, "The Ode" which premiered at the Outfest Film Festival (2008). It was called "a beautiful portrait of the American experience for many first and second-generation Indian-Americans" (CineQueer 7/18/08) and a film with performances that are "memorable" and filled with "cinematic intensity" (Planet Homo 7/19/08). The UCLA Asia Institute praised it as a film that inspired "after-film contemplation" and boasting performances that are "noteworthy" (Asia Pacific Arts 8/8/08).
A passionate activist, Dhalla co-founded the South Asian program for the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT) which provides prevention, health and social services, community leadership and advocacy to over 10,000 individuals in Southern California. He is also one of the founding members of SATRANG, a support group for LGBT and questioning South Asians in Los Angeles.
In June 2007, Dhalla was listed as one of the Top 21 Tastemakers and "Most Important Movers and Shakers" in America (Genre Magazine). In August 2007, Dhalla was listed as one of the "Top 25 People Who Make Us Melt - Angelenos Who Redefine What's Hot" (Frontiers Magazine).
On August 29th, 2009 Dhalla was showcased at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York with the headlining event, "An Evening with Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla."
His follow-up novel, "The Two Krishnas" garnered raves from peers, Lisa See, Chitra Divakaruni and his inspiration, Andrew Holleran and was published as "The Exiles" in India where it went on to become a bestseller.
He is currently developing "Embrace", a feature film based on love stories impacted by actual terror events from around the world. His short, upon which the feature is based, premiered at New York's prestigious IAAC film festival and was praised by the Huffington Post as a film that "captures the raw intensity of two ordinary people...A fascinating glimpse of humanity in crisis. The film delivers a message of the defeat of evil and triumph over adversity."
You stay in touch with Ghalib on twitter (@gshiraz) and facebook (www.faceboo.com/ghalibshirazdhalla)
His critically-acclaimed debut novel, "Ode to Lata", was hailed by the LA Times as "an accomplishment" and The Library Journal as "brilliant." An excerpt premiered in the anthology, Contours of the Heart (Rutgers), and went on to win the 18th Annual American Book Award. The novel created milestones as the first South Asian gay novel ever to be reviewed by the LA Times Book Review and to be excerpted by LGBT landmark magazine, Genre. It was also the first account of the South Asian gay experience from an author from the African continent.
Dhalla went on to adapt, produce and co-direct the novel into the feature film, "The Ode" which premiered at the Outfest Film Festival (2008). It was called "a beautiful portrait of the American experience for many first and second-generation Indian-Americans" (CineQueer 7/18/08) and a film with performances that are "memorable" and filled with "cinematic intensity" (Planet Homo 7/19/08). The UCLA Asia Institute praised it as a film that inspired "after-film contemplation" and boasting performances that are "noteworthy" (Asia Pacific Arts 8/8/08).
A passionate activist, Dhalla co-founded the South Asian program for the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT) which provides prevention, health and social services, community leadership and advocacy to over 10,000 individuals in Southern California. He is also one of the founding members of SATRANG, a support group for LGBT and questioning South Asians in Los Angeles.
In June 2007, Dhalla was listed as one of the Top 21 Tastemakers and "Most Important Movers and Shakers" in America (Genre Magazine). In August 2007, Dhalla was listed as one of the "Top 25 People Who Make Us Melt - Angelenos Who Redefine What's Hot" (Frontiers Magazine).
On August 29th, 2009 Dhalla was showcased at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York with the headlining event, "An Evening with Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla."
His follow-up novel, "The Two Krishnas" garnered raves from peers, Lisa See, Chitra Divakaruni and his inspiration, Andrew Holleran and was published as "The Exiles" in India where it went on to become a bestseller.
He is currently developing "Embrace", a feature film based on love stories impacted by actual terror events from around the world. His short, upon which the feature is based, premiered at New York's prestigious IAAC film festival and was praised by the Huffington Post as a film that "captures the raw intensity of two ordinary people...A fascinating glimpse of humanity in crisis. The film delivers a message of the defeat of evil and triumph over adversity."
You stay in touch with Ghalib on twitter (@gshiraz) and facebook (www.faceboo.com/ghalibshirazdhalla)
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 21, 2013
In praise of brilliance
Having read and been captivated by Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla's novel THE TWO KRISHNAS and finding it difficult to believe that such a brilliant gift for writing seemed to be an isolated jewel, a quick bit of searching revealed that the just completed novel was not a one night stand, but instead the work of a novelist whose stories and screenplays and abilities as a director were known to many. Hence, opening the covers of ODE TO LATA (and discovering that this was indeed the 10th anniversary edition! With the added charm of a never before printed short story placed at the book's end) held great expectations. Not surprisingly all expectations were met and indeed a growing respect of the gifts of this East Indian lad from Kenya transplanted to Los Angeles. This is an important voice in literature and not only in that special field of gay literature, but more appropriately in the international realm of authors whose ability to shape language into monuments of understanding and celebration of differences - of cultures, of gender variations, of capturing the essence of the world as we live in it today - supersede national background and instead provide a matrix for us all to learn about the unity of mankind.
Briefly, this novel deals with a man named Ali who was born in Kenya, the son of an abusive father and a doting mother, whose childhood was colored by the songs and lights of Bollywood movies, dressing in outrageous garb and participating in activities that indicated quite early that he preferred men to women. The bits and pieces of his existence in Kenya are scattered throughout the book, raising their heads when further elucidation calls memories forth. Ali `escapes' to America where he becomes a banker by day and a West Hollywood club addict by night. He has friends, both fellow East Indian men and others, but Ali's penchant for attracting lovers who do not have the same monogamous needs as Ali leads him through affairs that rip at his soul: Richard, Nelson, Bill consume his passion for a time until he discovers their need for absence. There are moments of betrayal even as a best friend usurps the bed of a current lover, but Ali's needs are never exhausted. His ties to his genetic background are focused in a visit from his beloved Mummy who finally accepts Ali's choice of life style. Dhalla takes us very realistically through the seedier aspects of night life, the ebullient passion of this affairs, the agonies of love lost /found/lost and facing the vast emptiness of life alone - at times even without friends. He invites us into the psyche of a handsome young Indian who not infrequently feels unattractive, unloved, misunderstood, and betrayed. Yet through it all we, the reader, deeply care about this beauty of a character.
The `gift', aside from the ability to tell a story that never lets the reader pause, that Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla has that places him in that echelon of brilliant writers is his majestic poetry that flows simply from the manner in which he places words on the page. A brief example: `The years have nothing to do with aging. It is the heart that governs that process. It etches out its infliction upon your face like a sketcher dribbling carelessly on unsoiled paper, leaving irrevocable histories of the wars and wounds endured.' And that is too brief an example, but walk through his descriptions of West Hollywood at gloaming when the landscape alters with the loss of sun to become the grotesquely lighted stage for the evening and night's grand theater of lust, or enter the bedrooms and witness in words the extravagances of physical encounters. And when he interjects words and phrases from his native tongue the atmosphere fills with the sent of incense and cumin.
But the only true way to appreciate this book (and his others) is to read them, alone or out loud with friends - that is when they become choral and operatic, or in a few pages plangent and longing for centricity. Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla is one amazing writer. Highly Recommended.
Grady Harp
Having read and been captivated by Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla's novel THE TWO KRISHNAS and finding it difficult to believe that such a brilliant gift for writing seemed to be an isolated jewel, a quick bit of searching revealed that the just completed novel was not a one night stand, but instead the work of a novelist whose stories and screenplays and abilities as a director were known to many. Hence, opening the covers of ODE TO LATA (and discovering that this was indeed the 10th anniversary edition! With the added charm of a never before printed short story placed at the book's end) held great expectations. Not surprisingly all expectations were met and indeed a growing respect of the gifts of this East Indian lad from Kenya transplanted to Los Angeles. This is an important voice in literature and not only in that special field of gay literature, but more appropriately in the international realm of authors whose ability to shape language into monuments of understanding and celebration of differences - of cultures, of gender variations, of capturing the essence of the world as we live in it today - supersede national background and instead provide a matrix for us all to learn about the unity of mankind.
Briefly, this novel deals with a man named Ali who was born in Kenya, the son of an abusive father and a doting mother, whose childhood was colored by the songs and lights of Bollywood movies, dressing in outrageous garb and participating in activities that indicated quite early that he preferred men to women. The bits and pieces of his existence in Kenya are scattered throughout the book, raising their heads when further elucidation calls memories forth. Ali `escapes' to America where he becomes a banker by day and a West Hollywood club addict by night. He has friends, both fellow East Indian men and others, but Ali's penchant for attracting lovers who do not have the same monogamous needs as Ali leads him through affairs that rip at his soul: Richard, Nelson, Bill consume his passion for a time until he discovers their need for absence. There are moments of betrayal even as a best friend usurps the bed of a current lover, but Ali's needs are never exhausted. His ties to his genetic background are focused in a visit from his beloved Mummy who finally accepts Ali's choice of life style. Dhalla takes us very realistically through the seedier aspects of night life, the ebullient passion of this affairs, the agonies of love lost /found/lost and facing the vast emptiness of life alone - at times even without friends. He invites us into the psyche of a handsome young Indian who not infrequently feels unattractive, unloved, misunderstood, and betrayed. Yet through it all we, the reader, deeply care about this beauty of a character.
The `gift', aside from the ability to tell a story that never lets the reader pause, that Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla has that places him in that echelon of brilliant writers is his majestic poetry that flows simply from the manner in which he places words on the page. A brief example: `The years have nothing to do with aging. It is the heart that governs that process. It etches out its infliction upon your face like a sketcher dribbling carelessly on unsoiled paper, leaving irrevocable histories of the wars and wounds endured.' And that is too brief an example, but walk through his descriptions of West Hollywood at gloaming when the landscape alters with the loss of sun to become the grotesquely lighted stage for the evening and night's grand theater of lust, or enter the bedrooms and witness in words the extravagances of physical encounters. And when he interjects words and phrases from his native tongue the atmosphere fills with the sent of incense and cumin.
But the only true way to appreciate this book (and his others) is to read them, alone or out loud with friends - that is when they become choral and operatic, or in a few pages plangent and longing for centricity. Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla is one amazing writer. Highly Recommended.
Grady Harp
October 16, 2011
Quite poorly written.
November 24, 2014
Very insightful and beautifully written. A must-read.
Read
December 9, 2010A really great book
May 31, 2023
It’s a heavy book no doubt with a lot of themes that hit close to home- such as self-depreciation and distorted perception of others due to internalised and externalised racism/colourism; self-inflicted misery due to mental health struggles and battle with one’s body image. Yet keeping that aside, it is a great piece of literature. I loved how Bollywood-both it’s performative and musical elements- are tied into a “coming out” story, makes me feel seen and heard.
August 2, 2025
Good story of queer immigration culture and the challenges of looking for lasting relationships
Read
September 14, 2011My book so external reviews--
http://www.ghalibdhalla.com/OTL%20REV...
http://www.ghalibdhalla.com/OTL%20REV...
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews