Press Release

Lost at 15, Found at 50

By Ashwini Devare

New Delhi 13th February 2019: Ambassador Kiran Doshi, diplomat and author of award-winning
book, “Jinnah often came to our house” along with Ranjana Sengupta, Deputy Publisher,
Penguin Press, launched ‘Lost at 15, found at 50’, by Ashwini Devare, at India International
Centre, New Delhi. Over 100 members of the audience attended the packed event. A large
number of Indian diplomats were present at the book launch, to hear Ashwini’ story, the first
time a Foreign Service child has penned a memoir about growing up in the Foreign Service in
the 70s and 80s. The launch was attended by Mrs. Lakshmi Puri, a former foreign service officer
and wife of Minister of State for housing and Urban Affairs, Mr. Hardeep Singh Puri.

Responding to what prompted her to write this memoir, Ashwini Devare says, “One reason I
wrote this memoir was to explore the fascinating historical landscape which was like a
background slide to my life. The more I wrote, the more I became lost in the eras I wanted to
recreate. Writing this book allowed me the enquiry of a past, to wander through the corridors of
history. Because every country we were posted to was in the throes of extraordinary change
and I felt like I was in step with history.”

Ashwini talked about how difficult it was going from country to country, school to school and
having to make friends in countries where there were no other Indian kids.

“I quickly learned that either you Adjust or you Perish- that was the mantra for survival. “Fitting
in’ acquired an urgency throughout my childhood and adolescence.”

“Underneath the glitz and the glamour, the gilded rooms and chandeliers, the so-called
glamorous life came with a hefty price-tag-- of displacement and alienation, bye-products of our
nomadic life,” said Ashwini.