09/06/2026
📚 Book Rec Alert! 📚
Paddy Indian by Cauvery Madhavan is a warm, humorous fish-out-of-water story about identity, belonging, and finding home in the wrong place 💛.
Padhman is a young doctor from an extremely wealthy, westernised medical family in Madras. He arrives in 1990s Ireland with high hopes for his fellowship at a Dublin hospital - only to discover that to many, he’s just another “foreign doctor.” Between hospital shifts and the Irish weather, he’s figuring out where he fits, what home really means, and how to recreate the food and comfort he left behind.
Why read it?
Cross-cultural comedy + heart: Tackles “otherness” and belonging with humor and warmth, never getting heavy-handed. It’s a gentle comedy about cultural differences
Fish-out-of-water charm: Padhman slowly recreates the lifestyle he’s used to in Madras while navigating Irish life, hospital politics, and falling for the Professor’s daughter
Food + nostalgia: Full of mouth-watering descriptions of Indian cooking that’ll make you hungry, plus the little things that make life feel familiar far from home
Recommended level: B2+ / Upper-Intermediate and above
If you love character-driven, cross-cultural reads like The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri or Brick Lane by Monica Ali, this one’s a charming, hopeful hug in book form with a side of curry 😊