Bad Karma

by Deborah Beatriz Blum

A factual account of the unusual, troubled love affair of Indian untouchable Prosenjit, a Berkeley engineering student, and Tanya, product of a disturbed home, which moved from obsession to murder

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

DEBORAH BEATRIZ BLUM'S interest in other cultures and far-away lands began when she traveled the world as a writer on the television series In Search Of.... Her first book, Bad Karma: A True Story of Obsession and Murder, took her on an extended journey through India. Since then she has sold story ideas for feature films, producing several, including Clean and Sober, and has worked as a writer-director of documentaries for the National Geographic Channel, the Discovery Channel, and the History Channel. She makes her home in Los Angeles with her husband and three sons.

Reviews

[Dennis Littrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blum, Deborah. Bad Karma: A True Story of Obsession and Murder (1986)*****
Cultural shock at Berkeley, circa 1969

This is a beautifully written, painstakingly researched and organized, fearless exploration of a tragic clash of character and culture. Deborah Blum strove for objectivity and empathy, understanding and identification, and she achieved it. In so far as a true crime story can be a work of art, this is one.

The setting is Berkeley 1969, Telegram Avenue and People's Park, etc. recalled with vivid and nostalgic detail. The two central characters, Prosenjit, an Indian exchange student at the university and Tanya, an American student, begin a flirtation that ends in tragedy. She is a sweet, innocent (or nearly innocent) girl who really only deserved to be loved, but she plays head games and heart games with Prosenjit who loves her passionately, and he is deeply hurt. I guess she couldn't know from her limited experience that in such situations some men can be dangerous. He is an Untouchable, or at least his grandfather was, and a nerd, and she lords it over him with her Caucasian beauty so that gradually he becomes obsessed with her. She grows uncomfortable with his obsession and wants him out of her life. But she calls him back after being dumped by another guy. The reader knows, as in a Greek tragedy, that this calling Prosenjit back reveals her fatal flaw.

Blum includes some photos of Tanya and some of Prosenji and his village in India. Her father is a jealous and controlling alcoholic, a Russian by birth who snoops around her room looking for evidence of liaisons and follows her about and forbids her to date although she is in college. She is a bright pretty girl who lacks in confidence. Prosenjit is a genius or nearly so, who has risen from his lowly birth to be one of the most promising of his generation in India. Interesting is his friend Jal Mehta, a Parsi Indian who knows Prosenjit from school in India and believes in his genius and tries to help him. Jal is confident and charming, articulate and wise in the ways of the world, but Prosenjit is jealous of him and cannot accept his help.

At some point Prosenjit begins to threaten violence, but Tanya continues to taunt him. She gets some satisfaction out of his obsessive love for her, but she hates him because he is such a nerd, and she despises his fawning behavior. Nonetheless, she comes to his room a couple of times a week and lords it over him. He secretly tapes everything, and when she is gone he listens to the tapes over and over again, looking for some sign that she really loves him. He even splices some words together so that he has her saying "I love you." She rewards him sometimes with a tongue kiss on the mouth. Prosenjit, who is a prudish Victorian Indian, is both thrilled and shocked.

This is an excellent portrait of obsession. The clear compliancy of Tanya is notable. It suggests not just carelessness or an adolescent meanness, but something sadder, perhaps a self-destructive wish. Of course we feel sorry for her. We are led to feel sorry for both of them, just as we felt sorry for Romeo and Juliet.

Incidentally Tanya's parents eventually sued UC Berkeley, the shrinks in particular, for not warning them that their daughter was in danger. They won a landmark case that makes it mandatory for mental health care workers to warn potential victims if they think their client is dangerous.

--a review by Dennis Littrell

[♥ Marlene♥ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. What a fantastic read. So glad that I did love this book. The way it is written, how the suspension in the book gets higher and higher for us readers. love it. Highly recommend and not only for true crime readers.
It reads like fiction.Could not put it down.

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was extremely interested in this book since I was hanging out at the Berkeley campus around the time the events happened and was a student at Berkeley shortly afterwards. I loved the book and read it without stopping, front to back, in one day. The writing is excellent and I think the portrayal of the characters is extremely realistic. Basically, I loved everything about this book.

There are a few very minor inaccuracies in the text. For instance, in one place it says that People's Park is at the corner of Haste and Dwight. Those streets are parallel to each other, so there is no such corner, but People's Park lies between them. In another place it mentions that some of the characters are walking through a soccer field next to I House. Next to I House is the football stadium (which you cannot walk through), not a soccer field, though there are soccer fields a couple blocks away. These are minor things that don't detract from the very wonderful story, but surprised me that the author, who was a Berkeley student also, included in the book.

I highly recommend this book, even if you were not there at the time. It is a fascinating insight into obsession.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

ABSOLUTELY COMPELLING.

Genetics or environment? Heredity or culture? Biology or sociology? Which is it that sometimes prompts good people to mess up their lives, so tragically, so young?

In the true-crime writing mold of Ann Rule (‘The Stranger Beside Me’, ‘Small Sacrifices’, ‘If You Really Loved Me’) Deborah Blum’s, ‘Bad Karma: A True Story of Obsession and Murder’ is an obsessively compelling read.

Although it has been decades since I’ve read it, I couldn’t help but, at times, feel that I was reading the story of an India-born incarnation of Somerset Maugham’s protagonist, Philip Carey, (‘Of Human Bondage’). Only Prosenjit Poddar is, very sadly, a real person. So, tragically, was Tanya Tarasoff.

Recommendation: This was one of the best, and best written, true-crime stories I’ve ever read. If you’ve read and liked anything by Ann Rule, or were moved to any degree by reading ‘Of Human Bondage,’ you will enjoy ‘Bad Karma’.


Antheneum, New York, 1986 Hardcover edition, 311 pages.

[megHan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit that the cover that is on the Kindle version really threw me off. I'm not really a "judge a book by the cover" kind of person, but this one is bad and it almost made me not purchase it. Once it was in my Kindle library, it still sat there for awhile, me not being able to press the button on it because of that. Maybe it's just me ...

This was a good book. It was really interesting to see just how crazy he went, how he twisted what she said into what he wanted to hear ... and how she hated the attention, but at the same time missed it. To know that it was a real thing was even crazier, that no one could help her or stop him. I definitely recommend this book if you are interested in real-life events, but I warn you that the first chapter is a little slow. It does pick up. I promise. At the end (the last 75%), I had a problem putting it down and ended up staying awake until around 1 in the morning to finish the book. I just wish the story had continued and we could see what happened after the murder.

[dejah_thoris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written like a novel but actually the case that broke open patient confidentiality in regards to others being threatened. I liked that most of the book focused on their "relationship" rather than the actual crime, which is merely the last 10 pages. I am sympathetic to the murderer, however, as I think he was a driven to attack his obsession though he REALLY should've been involuntarily committed before it occurred. Great ripping true crime read that I burned through in two days, so highly recommended.

[Carla]

I stumbled onto this book by accident, through a Facebook Group, and I am glad of it. The story is riveting and disturbing -- and while I'm typically not a reader of true crime, I found this one impossible to put down. The cultural gap between the young Indian murderer and his troubled teenaged victim is the real heart of this tragedy. I wish the author had provided more detail on the psychiatric and legal battles, but that's carping. Recommended.

[Cindy Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

haunting is the word that comes to mind about this book.

Tarasoff v Regents of the University of California is the resulting suit from this murder. the decision changed things not only in CA but the rest of the US: "Protective privilege ends where public peril begins."

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a reprint of a book which was first published in 1969 ( I read it on my Kindle Fire). The book takes places UC Berkeley during the time the student rebellions were going on during the Vietnam War). The primary characters are and Untouchable Indian student, Prosenjit Poddar, and an American girl of Russian descent, Tanya Tarasoff. In 1949, Mahatma Gandhi made great strides toward ending the caste system in India; however, a culture always takes quite awhile to catch up to its ideals. When Mr. Poddar met Ms. Tarasoff at a dance in Berkeley, he fancied himself in love with her and also fantasized that she was in love with him. She most definitely was not; in fact, she being the daughter of a raging alcoholic father,would never have fallen in love with a passive man like Mr. Poddar. Mr. Poddar became obsessed with Ms. Tarasoff and had a sari made for her in the hopes of the two marrying. The situation got so bad that Mr. Poddar had to go see a psychiatrist since be began failing all of his classes and became fixated on the idea of killing Ms. Tarasoff while she was vacationing in Brazil during summer vacation. It is my opinion that people from foreign lands saw the USA as the land of opportunity, and thus Mr. Poddar saw Ms. Tarasoff as a symbol for his hopes and dreams in the land of opportunity. When she basically rejected him, the store becomes not only alarming, but obsessive. This is the kind of thing that happens when cultures are in flux. A very interesting and thought provoking book.

[Sue Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting story - based on a real occurrence of murder back in the late 60's. No doubt the facts are all accounted and presented but there was a lot of conjecture as to how - and why - it all went down. It was laid out well though and was understandable how it ultimately ended in a tragedy of murder and how it all came to be because of a clash of cultures and morals.

I personally would have liked a bit more at the end.... the actual facts of the case and how it changed the face of the law in these cases, instead of the little blurb that was given. If it was as well researched as indicated then it would have been nice to see it. The story is fine but it really is just a story with an awful lot of it presumed by the author. I don't doubt the sincerity of the nature of the characters presented but I found I was sometimes uncomfortable with all the conversations that took place or internal dialogue that happens that no one would have known, or could have known. I was glad to have the added feature of the pictures so you could get a feel for the main people involved in the case and it's circumstances.

All in all, it was a tragedy in a tumultuous time .

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled onto this book by accident. Fascinating read about how an "untouchable" young man, Poddar, from India beats the odds & ends up at Berkeley as a graduate student. A chance encounter with a young American woman turns his life upside down. He becomes obsessed, and ends up murdering her. Poddar was seeing a shrink, who considered Poddar a danger to the young woman, and tried to have him committed.
It was a senseless crime that could have been prevented. The Dr. Poddar was seeing tried to warn authorities, they did not take him seriously. His decision was overridden by his supervisor.

The case did set legal precedent, and now medical authorities are required to warn the potential victims of their patients.

A very interesting read, well written.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The landmark case that makes doctors tell if they know their patient will harm someone. Really good read.

[Lenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very gripping story about a very unusual scenario. A real page turner!

[Beth Shuler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read

When I first seen this book I honestly did not expect much. So I must admit I was VERY surprised and pleased. I found that not only was it so much more then expected I found it very well written, well researched (as far as I could tell), but it was also very easy to follow. I felt that she made it to where I could understand the different culturesbut she did not over do it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would read more of her work if she has any! So if you are thinking about reading this book don't just look at the cover (as I did) and debate or put it off. It's very good look and a good read and definitely worth it!!!

[Terry Cornell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written and researched account of the murder of Tanya Tarasoff by Prosenjit Poddar in 1968 Berkely. Author captures the time and the place, and by the time the reader finishes the book, you feel you know both very well. Two people doomed by fate is the only way to describe this circumstance. Not a typical true crime book, in that the killer is a somewhat sympathetic person that is out of place in society and a foreign culture. This case led to the requirement of therapists to warn potential victims of threats against them by their patients.

[Andrea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't know if this is a good story or not. The writing is so bad that I had to stop after a few pages:

"Yet there were times, after a glass of wine, or while she was dancing that she would forget to care. Then a spark would shine in her eyes and she would glow with a radiance that made her the envy of every girl in the room. "

Ugh.

Do not confuse this author with the talented writer Deborah L. Blum, who wrote Love at Goon Park and The Poisoner's Handbook.

[Navya · Rating 2 out of 5]

The point of view characters are real people but the author’s portrayal of them lacked depth and was rooted in unfair stereotypes. It was just an unfair and not fully accurate portrayal of the real people in this book who actually went through these events.

[Giddy Girlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm on the fence about whether this is a 3 or 4 star book. The writing was pretty good, but it was awfully drawn out for what amounts to be a surprisingly small story.

The author acknowledges that she took certain liberties with the dialog, which is fine, but based on the depth of the detail (in my opinion, a lot was unneeded) I had assumed that she had access to diaries or receipts and several conversations with the people involved, but it doesn't appear that she has. Which makes me wonder why we needed to know what type of hot dog Tanya orders and details down to that level. I understand that it sets the scene, but it's a little too detailed -- like maybe the author is involved with set dressing for movies, so the little details mean everything to her, although when they're piled together it adds pages and pages to a book that aren't totally necessary.

Anyway, I think the author did a good job of setting up the overall basis for the culture shock and staying very non-biased on either side of the parties involved. The young girl who enjoys the power that she has over men can sometimes seem cruel, but in reality she's not being torturous to him and if he had grown up in America, he would have understood that she was being manipulative and simultaneously naive and wouldn't have gotten so twisted up about interpreting her every action. And Poddar was written in a way that makes you feel extremely sorry for him and wishing that he had someone to stand up for him and help him out before he fell so deeply in love.

The biggest let down for me was the end of the book. It literally just ENDS. He kills her, is arrested, and then we get the Afterward. Not that I expected to go through all of the trial transcripts but it seems that there could have been a bit more mention of the details. And not just because I'm rubber-necking but because this trial is the basis for California Law. Based on this case, if a mental health professional suspects that their client is a threat to other people, the doctor can involve the police and the people threatened to notify them and ensure their safety. That's the crux of this case -- the psychiatrists knew Poddar was a threat but didn't have any power or authority to reveal what they knew without leaving themselves open to be sued for breach of confidentiality.

[Rosario · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought it was true crime but it's 90% made up, which I find very disrespectful to all involved. The author states that she chose to dramatize the events but the level of detail is mind-boggling and completely unnecessary. The characters are almost caricatures, Tanya is a complete idiot with a mean streak and Prosenjit Poddar goes from genius to completely nuts in one step. The events of the time are also referenced in a extremely simplistic manner and, after pages upon pages of boring made-up minutiae, the story is hastily terminated in a couple of paragraphs. Spare yourself the tedium.

[Sandra Kovac · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tragic and terrifying recount of the cultural differences between a young, coquettish college girl and the brilliant Indian untouchable who, against all odds, finds himself studying in America. He becomes completely and psychoticly obsessed with her while she toys shamelessly with his feelings. This murder changed the laws so that therapists are able to warn people/law enforcement of imminent danger to other persons.

[Hpreedom · Rating 3 out of 5]

WRITING STYLE GRABS YOUR INTEREST

WRITING STYLE GRABS YOUR INTEREST

This book is written from the view point of both antagonist and protagonist and reads much like a novel based on some facts from the case with conversation filler for emphasis. Some true crime books drive along incorporating researched data and history which tell you what happened but the psyche is barely treated. So Bad Karma grabbed and held my interest because it did.

[Mary Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

More like a novel than a factual account; this book was interesting and very readable. Although the author said she researched the case for many years, she does not reveal sources. A murder takes place in 1969 San Francisco in an atmosphere of rioting, drugs and sexual freedom. We meet a young man from India, an Untouchable, who is brilliant and possibly insane. The girl he falls in love with can't see the danger she is in until it is too late.

[Monty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good picture of obsession. I felt increasing fear and revultion until the end. For those like myself who enjoy the trial and punishment of true crime, this book does not cover that part of this story.

[Rose Burcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cultural ignorance, obsession, mental illness and murder. An emotional read. Well written.

[Rowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book obviously takes liberties with feelings and dialogue, but does so in a compelling, interesting way.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

My guilty pleasure...true crime. Culture clash gone horribly wrong.

[Fairlee Corkran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fast read. I felt as sorry for the murderer as I did for the victim.

[Mahendra Jangid · Rating 3 out of 5]

good one

[Kevin Larose · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very depressing book.

[Deke Rohrbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a free book on Kindle but it was very good. The story is a somewhat fictionalized version of an actual incident that I had never heard about before. It was a surprisingly enjoyable read.