RAJESH C. OZA at Book Inc. Palo Alto

Rajesh will be in conversation with Rohit Chopra.

About the book: In Double Play on the Red Line, Palo Alto novelist Rajesh C. Oza delivers a powerful, emotionally resonant story of injustice, alliance, and hope between two American men of color—one Black, one Indian—bound by a brutal encounter in Wrigley Field’s iconic bleachers.

Ernie was poised to become one of the first Black players in the Major Leagues. But on the eve of his historic debut in the 1950s, his life is derailed by a wrongful conviction that steals 16 years from him. When he returns to Wrigley in 1969, it’s not as a player—but as a peanut vendor.

Ratan, a young journalism professor and avid Cubs fan, witnesses a violent assault on Ernie during a game and is galvanized into action. What begins as a moment of horror becomes a journey up and down Chicago’s Red Line discovering multiple truths and venturing deeply into the legacy of racism, silence, and survival in America.

Timeless in its exploration of social justice, Double Play on the Red Line is both a Chicagoan’s love letter to baseball and an immigrant’s unflinching portrait of America’s contradictions.

Dr. Rajesh C. Oza (President, OrganiZationAlignment Consulting Group) specializes in advising senior executives to better align their organizations to achieve success. Dr. Oza served as President of Northwestern University’s Industrial Engineering and Management Science Advisory Board. He facilitates the development of MBA Students’ Interpersonal Dynamics at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He has lived in Palo Alto for over a quarter of a century.

Raj has written magazine columns, book reviews, travel essays, prize-winning short stories, and three books of nonfiction: Globalization, Diaspora, and Work Transformation: Metaphoric Implications of a Journey to Free-Agency; Satyalogue // Truthtalk: A Gandhian Guide to (Post)Modern-Day Dilemmas; and P.S., Papa's Stories. His debut novel, Double Play on the Red Line, was inspired by his daughter’s experience with Northwestern’s Innocence Project; it was completed in Stanford’s two-year novel-writing program.

Moderator Bio: Rohit Chopra (Professor, Santa Clara University's Department of Communication) writes on media, politics, society, and culture for a number of global media organizations. He is the author of The Gita for a Global World: Ethical Action in an Age of Flux, The Virtual Hindu Nation: Saffron Nationalism and New Media, and Technology and Nationalism in India: Cultural Negotiations from Colonialism to Cyberspace. Rohit currently serves on the advisory board of The Center for the Study of Organized Hate, an organization dedicated to research and advocacy related to hate networks in mediated and non-mediated spaces.

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