What do you think?
Rate this book
Tangerine: How to Read the Upanishads Without Giving Up Coffee
About the Book
NAMITA DEVIDAYAL JOURNEYS INTO THE VERY HEART OF HINDUISM TO FIND HER BALANCE AND HER FAITH.
A chance encounter in Rishikesh with a practitioner of a Hindu spiritual tradition turns journalist, musician, free spirit Namita Devidayal on an unexpected journey. It is not one she had expected to embark on, and not one she expects people in her life to fully understand. But walk she does on the path to discovering the ancient texts and universal truths embedded in a religion that she has thus far only nominally belonged to.
It turns out to be just the immersion Namita needs at a time that she’s struggling with the decision to dissolve a long marriage, and finding herself restless and unnerved. She is soon neck-deep in the Upanishads and the gospels of thinkers like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and her teacher’s guru, Dayananda Saraswati. This accidental pilgrim begins to discover the boundless reserves of wisdom that have somehow got drowned out in the cacophony that has consumed Hinduism, leading her both to an understanding of the self and of how to unself herself.
Candid and open-hearted, this is one woman’s journey into the very heart of Hinduism to discover peace within herself in a fast-unravelling and increasingly turbulent world.
About the Author
Namita Devidayal is the author of The Music Room, Aftertaste and The Sixth String of Vilayat Khan. She is a journalist with The Times of India. She lives in Mumbai.
NAMITA DEVIDAYAL JOURNEYS INTO THE VERY HEART OF HINDUISM TO FIND HER BALANCE AND HER FAITH.
A chance encounter in Rishikesh with a practitioner of a Hindu spiritual tradition turns journalist, musician, free spirit Namita Devidayal on an unexpected journey. It is not one she had expected to embark on, and not one she expects people in her life to fully understand. But walk she does on the path to discovering the ancient texts and universal truths embedded in a religion that she has thus far only nominally belonged to.
It turns out to be just the immersion Namita needs at a time that she’s struggling with the decision to dissolve a long marriage, and finding herself restless and unnerved. She is soon neck-deep in the Upanishads and the gospels of thinkers like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and her teacher’s guru, Dayananda Saraswati. This accidental pilgrim begins to discover the boundless reserves of wisdom that have somehow got drowned out in the cacophony that has consumed Hinduism, leading her both to an understanding of the self and of how to unself herself.
Candid and open-hearted, this is one woman’s journey into the very heart of Hinduism to discover peace within herself in a fast-unravelling and increasingly turbulent world.
About the Author
Namita Devidayal is the author of The Music Room, Aftertaste and The Sixth String of Vilayat Khan. She is a journalist with The Times of India. She lives in Mumbai.
- GenresNonfictionPhilosophy
197 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 25, 2025
9 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Namita Devidayal
6 books37 followersNamita Devidayal is a journalist with The Times of India, where she has written on a range of subjects from a satirical column called 'yummy mummy' to personal finance to culture.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 2, 2025
Faced with a failed marriage and dissatisfaction with the turn of life, Namita Devidayal embarks on a search of ‘self’. From education in Ivy League Princeton and office in Mumbai to Ashrams in Haridwar/Rishikesh, a journey she undertakes to find solutions to what plagues her crumbling life. From shower in a Mumbai flat, she proceeds for a dip in Ganga to come up with a way forward from teachings of Hinduism in Ashrams along the banks of holy Ganga. Upanishads fascinate her.
Namita’s story going back and forth now meanders around various subjects related and unrelated, years past and present and loses steam along the way. So does the reader’s interest. Is Tangarine a biography, is it political commentary, is it her thoughts on various subjects, botany (composting), physics,or music or what?
I remember one interview of her in which Namita speaks without a full stop; she wants to say so many things so doesn't matter what the purpose of the interview is, she needs to express herself on all subjects. This book is same.
Political commentary “ But a ruthless version of Hindutva had started becoming the background score in our country, a perennial, growing drumbeat that spasmodically became a deafening techno-rave. The city of Mumbai had always been casually Cosmopolitan and politically abstemious, so this was new and unnerving. Many ius started feeling a sense of unease over anything Hindu. How had such a profoundly sophisticated religion unleashed so much hatred?”
Along the length of the book, reference to Upanishads are sprinkled to claim that “Tangarine” is about “How to Read Upanishads Without Giving Up Coffee “ The blurb says
“NAMITA DEVIDAYAL JOURNEYS INTO THE VERY HEART OF HINDUISM TO FIND HER BALANCE AND HER FAITH.”
Tangarine fails in that ‘Journey’
Namita’s story going back and forth now meanders around various subjects related and unrelated, years past and present and loses steam along the way. So does the reader’s interest. Is Tangarine a biography, is it political commentary, is it her thoughts on various subjects, botany (composting), physics,or music or what?
I remember one interview of her in which Namita speaks without a full stop; she wants to say so many things so doesn't matter what the purpose of the interview is, she needs to express herself on all subjects. This book is same.
Political commentary “ But a ruthless version of Hindutva had started becoming the background score in our country, a perennial, growing drumbeat that spasmodically became a deafening techno-rave. The city of Mumbai had always been casually Cosmopolitan and politically abstemious, so this was new and unnerving. Many ius started feeling a sense of unease over anything Hindu. How had such a profoundly sophisticated religion unleashed so much hatred?”
Along the length of the book, reference to Upanishads are sprinkled to claim that “Tangarine” is about “How to Read Upanishads Without Giving Up Coffee “ The blurb says
“NAMITA DEVIDAYAL JOURNEYS INTO THE VERY HEART OF HINDUISM TO FIND HER BALANCE AND HER FAITH.”
Tangarine fails in that ‘Journey’
Displaying 1 of 1 review