Serving Crazy with Curry

by Amulya Malladi

Published 1 January 2004
On the morning Devi decides to take her life, fate conspires against her. Fate in the form of her mother, Saroj, who uses her spare key to let herself into her youngest daughter's apartment when she thinks she's at work. But, having lost yet another job, and knowing she will never live up to the example her oldest sister has set her as a traditional Indian wife, Devi had decided to take the easy way out. But it seems she can add suicide to her list of failings. But whilst Saroj insists on telling the world that it was she who saved her daughter's life, Devi isn't sure what she's been saved for. Forced to move back in with her parents until she is strong enough to resume her life, she adopts a vow of silence. Instead, she begins to cook. Wild, crazy concoctions that are so delicious the family is drawn again and again to the table. As Devi's silence grows, so does her family's bewilderment at her behaviour. Tension builds and others begin to talk. And secrets are revealed that rock the family to its core...