To Eat You is to Keep You
I think love, at its most honest, is a kind of hunger, and I don’t mean that metaphorically. I mean it in the way it settles into my body, the way it lingers in my mouth, and in the way it sharpens itself against absence and waits to be fed. Only by you. They say […]
The Imprint of Boots on the Tongue (translated from Hindi)
For the last two to four months, I had deprived myself of visiting the Greenwood Hotel. Since my heart wore a shade of sadness that day, Shashi nudged me, “Why don’t you go out for a while? It might do some good to your heart.” Because there was some money in my pocket, my heart […]
The Gilded Petal: Salt, Saffron, and Silence
Raindrops in Kolkata must be built differently. The rain just doesn’t fall; it’s questions, drumming against the peeling lime plaster of the huge Mallick mansion. Perhaps, it demands to know why the oil lamps in the kitchen still burned at three in the morning, casting long, skeletal shadows across the uthhon. The misty morning air […]
Appetite, Lost: Reading for the breast
“It was the desire of food that spawned disobedience; it was the pleasure of taste that drove us from Paradise” — Abbot Nilus of Annyera When I was born, I was indifferent to my mother’s breasts. There were many vain attempts at forcing her nipples into my mouth, each ending with a crying baby and […]
Forbidden Desire on a Plate of Macher Jhol and Bhaat
It was siesta hour, and the house grew quiet in the sultry summer of Kolkata. The slatted windows were closed to block out the intense sunlight from entering the large home. This was an old zamindari house with big verandas and marble topped tables, the edges hanging like shame of a debauched history of entitlement […]
Aftertaste
The concoction always made me retch. It felt wrong, slimy, sliding down my throat, and the occasional obstruction of a cashew I despised even more, getting stuck between the crevices of my teeth. To hate payasam was a sin for a Malayali, but I hated it with a burning passion. I remember that day […]
finding/ feeding intimacy, one chicken curry at a time
I begin with a recipe I can only remember in parts. Not because it was never taught to me, but because it was never meant to be written down. It lived in my mother’s hands, in the way she put the curry leaves, in the pauses between stirring, in the instinct to taste and adjust […]
Excerpt from the play “Leopards and Peacocks”
Cast of Characters DIASPORA: narrator, early 20s, non-binary gender, bilingual Tamil/Sinhalese MEENAKSHI “Meena”: mother to Sharika and Lakshan, early 50s, Tamil, mixed-caste, east coast Ilankai Tamil accent, works at Timmy’s SHARIKA “Shari”: oldest daughter, early 20s, hard femme LAKSHAN “Thambi”: younger son, late teens, longish black hair, chubby, Deaf ANTON: Sharika’s best friend, early 20s, […]
The Kitchen Closet: Accounts of Dysphoria, Hunger, and Hidden Selves
The kitchen does not begin by teaching a person how to cook. It begins by teaching the body where to stand. It teaches this quietly. No one announces it as training. No one says, “This is how gender enters the body.” The lesson happens through minute corrections. Stand closer. Move aside. Hold the knife properly. […]
Menu
Breakfast Fruit bowl ……………………………………………………………………… ₹ 0214/- The chef puts together watermelon, dragonfruit, muskmelon, chickoos, grapes, and blueberries in a single bowl to start your day together. She likes knowing you are gazing at her but she can’t bring herself to look you back in the eye. She watches you leave out most of the watermelon […]
