Book Review:
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The Mistress of Spices
by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Genre: Classic Fiction
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By Seema Tara Rajwar
My Monday appointment is with ‘The Mistress of Spices’ by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni – a magical tale of power and love – a story that kept me company during my Europe winter travel haul many years ago but still holds a very special place in my heart.
The story begins in a small village in India, where Nayan Tara is ostracised for being born a girl – that too a dark-skinned one.
Little do her impoverished parents and siblings know; that one day her abilities to foretell the future will reap riches from far and wide.
Nayan Tara’s life takes a sudden turn in a far-away land with a wise one, who trains her in the ability to commune with spices.
In exchange, she has to renounce her youth; take on a new identity of a simpleton and a vow to serve only the spices for the greater good of mankind.
In her new avatar as Tilo, she appears as an old woman to others and runs a busy grocery store in Oakland, United States; where she secretly mutters sacred incantations for the benefit for all her grief-stricken, immigrant clients who face challenges living in a foreign land – until one day – she finds herself falling in love with a half-bred, mysterious American who sees through her guise.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni weaves a spellbinding tale of a young, gifted and fiery woman Nayan Tara a.k.a Tilo; whose natural gifts are a blessing and a curse in disguise. Tilo has great magical powers and command over her chosen path as a Mistress of Spices – yet her lonely heart pines for human connection and love.
Her constant inner conflicts and fears of losing her identity force her to question her loyalty towards the wise one and the spices.
A chance meeting with a lonely American at her grocery store breaks open old wounds for both – so much so that she is ready to renounce her extraordinary gift in exchange for an ordinary life – all for the love of a man.
Will she leave the world of spice lore and enter a forbidden relationship with a mortal? For, after all – there’s no greater magic than the power of love.
The book was originally published on the 6th Feb 1997 in the United States and was made into a romantic drama movie directed by Paula Mayed Berges and Gurinder Chaddha, starring the beautiful and talented Aishwarya Rai as the main protagonist Tilo and Dylan McDermott as the lonely American.
(Seema Tara Rajwar is a journalist and a certified Ayurveda Councellor. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management by the Welcomgroup School of Hotel Administration, Manipal.)
