Out of the Third World

Over a half- century ago, Ashok, a shy 18-year old Indian student from Tanzania, a third world country in East Africa, goes to England with the grand ambition to become a medical doctor. His travails are compounded by his poor command of British English and study difficulties at the Woolwich College in London, where he enrolls to study for his prerequisites for medical school admission. During his first year, his problems are compounded by the backdrop of hostility arising from a tumultuous period in the British history triggered by an apocalyptic-sounding rhetorical speech, dubbed "The Rivers of Blood," delivered on April 20, 1968, by Enoch Powell, a prominent British politician. In his speech, Powell, a powerful orator and an intellectual, demands an immediate halt to immigration into Great Britain of non-white people from the new Commonwealth countries which were Great Britain's ex-colonies, and wants those already immigrated and settled in the country voluntarily repatriated with generous stipends. His support ratings among the native British population topped over 70 percent, including massive demonstrations in his support by dock workers; traditionally the back-bone supporters of the then ruling left-leaning labor party. This was in spite of Powell being a right-wing politician belonging to the opposition conservative Tory party, whose chief, Edward Heath had fired him as the shadow defense minister, calling his speech "racialist in tone and likely to exacerbate racial tensions." At the Woolwich College, the impressionable Ashok inadvertently befriend Norbert Eliumelu, a sly, smooth-talking, immaculately dressed Nigerian in his thirties, who is also studying for his prerequisites for medical school admission. Norbert, a social-butterfly with tremendous communication skills, has already enamored himself to the students and the staff at the college. Ashok starts to feel confident and supported by his burgeoning friendship with Norbert and feels some of his stardust sprinkling on him. The bonhomie takes an ominous turn when Norbert suddenly disappears from the college at the end of the first year. He reappears at the end of the second and final college year at Ashok's rented place to cajole, threaten and bribe him into a carefully crafted highly nefarious, illegal, unethical and risky quid pro quo plan that would guarantee both of them placements at medical schools--a very onerous task for a foreign student in Great Britain 50 years ago. Out of the Third World is a chronicle of the travails, tenacity and grit against overwhelming odds and adversity faced by Ashok to succeed. If you think you have heard and read everything, then you may not have, until you have read this book! Virtually every page is guaranteed to entertain you.