"Bring Me the Head of Opal Mehta" Now Available

New book explores plagiarism scandal and offshoring debacles in a common global context

Author and high tech veteran Kay Stoner draws surprising connections between the downfall of Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan and the challenges and failures of offshore technical outsourcing.

Boston, MA (September 20, 2006): In the spring of 2006, the book "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" was sacrificed to the gods of the publishing establishment. Its author, Kaavya Viswanathan, was thrust into the limelight as a plagiarist and lost her historic book deal. After a few weeks of impassioned online debate, the scandal faded to an uncomfortable memory.

But the drama that set the blogosphere on fire was not an isolated incident in the American publishing scene. Indeed, the events which set industry insiders scrambling and sent Kaavya into hiding, are indicative of current globalizing market-driven trends that continually undermine the unique integrity of local subcultures, including the world of high tech development. But every now and then, a community will stand up for itself and defend its most valued standards, as the blogosphere did when it chased Kaavya and her book from the literary marketplace.

Drawing on the author's own experiences with Indian offshore outsourcing, "Bring Me the Head of Opal Mehta" finds parallels between the public failure of a promising novel and often-unreported failings in Indian offshoring of U.S. technical jobs. It also sends out a call to the American technical community to regroup and rise to meet head-on the social and logistical challenges of offshore outsourcing with the same daring, pragmatic innovation that has placed America at the leading edge of high tech world.


"Bravo, I say, bravo. I’ve written entire posts with thinner links to brownness."
-- Manish Vij, Ultrabrown.com


"Stoner’s book . . . press[es] the point that the mad rush to outsource everything may lead to US companies sourcing substandard products, including software from India."
-- Uttara Choudhury, Daily News and Analysis, India


"With this book, Kay Stoner jumpstarts a conversation that should have been taking place across the globe for the past several years."
-- Mary Roy, Technical Writer, 19-year High Tech Veteran


Kay Stoner is a writer and technologist who lives and works in central Massachusetts. She has been building technology for over 15 years, and she's worked with Indian technical colleagues for more than a decade.

Visit www.kaystoner.com for info about her and her work.

Review copies are available - please send your name and address and the publication you're reviewing the book for to kaystoner@yahoo.com. Print and electronic copies are available.

"Bring Me the Head of Opal Mehta: Of Art, Outourcing, Kaavya Viswanathan, and the Narcissus Machine"
180 pp trade paperback
$14.95 USD (+ $3.50 s/h)
Published 2006 by Thought2Form Productions, LLC