Friction between the generations, always the stuff of great fiction, is nowhere stronger than in Banglore, India's Silicone Valley, where software billionaires, beggars and the legacy of the Raj combine and collide. THE RED CARPET is an astonishingly enjoyable collection of stories as rich and absorbing as any novel. From traditional mothers trying to marry off their Westernised children and old-fashioned chauffeurs struggling with racy employers, Lavanya Sankaran's tales of the clash between East and West are a pleasure and a revelation.