Bad Karma: A True Story of Obsession and Murder

This affecting true crime book by a California film producer tells the story of two young people in the Berkeley of 1968 whose relationship proved to be a tragedy. They were from vastly different cultures: Prosenjit Poddar, a naval architecture student at the University of California, was from India's Untouchables, and knew nothing about young Americans, their attitudes, their dating rituals. Tanya Tarasoff, a junior college student, knew even less about Indian customs. Additionally, their personality problems were acute: he was a single-minded individual whose obsession with his work turned into an obsession for Tanya, while she, immature, insecure and the product of a home dominated by an alcoholic bully of a father, manipulated her power over Poddar, alternately luring and rejecting him. A psychiatrist who treated him predicted violence, but got no cooperation from the police. Poddar was found guilty of killing the young woman and was eventually deported after his conviction was overturned. Photos not seen by PW. (June 30pTHE LIFE OF A REAL GIRL: An Autobi