21 Dec 2020
From the Bookshelf: Being Sheela, by Adithi Rao
Being Sheela: The Life Journey of an Immigration Lawyer (Harper Collins 2020)
"A young mother separated from her children for eight long years; a man facing deportation after being mistaken for a terrorist; a woman forced to endure domestic violence so that she can retain her right to remain in her adopted country… These are just a few among the thousands of people whom Sheela Murthy - lawyer, entrepreneur and philanthropist - has helped to overcome injustice, dispossession and legal tangles, so they may live a life of dignity in an increasingly challenging world. With insightful detours into her eventful growing-up years, the book follows her journey from India to America, through law school at Harvard to the inception of what went on to become one of the most successful immigration law firms in the world-the Murthy Law Firm. The book takes a close look at a few out of the countless cases that Sheela and her dynamic legal team have handled over twenty-five years in the face of rapidly changing American attitudes towards immigrants. Being Sheela is about the human side of a successful professional, an immigrant and woman of color, who has made it her purpose to strive for a better world."