Why is it that there is so little humour in Indian womens writing in general?
As Indians, we don’t have a great sense of humour, like the British. We don’t laugh at ourselves, we laugh at jokes. There is a humour in my book, but it is very subtle. There is very little room in a woman’s life to laugh about something. What did you enjoy most about writing this book? The food. When I was a little girl in Madras, we had these Brahmin neighbours across the landing. They didn’t cook much, but sometimes, when they had guests, there would be all these wonderful smells wafting to our doorstep–kesar halwa and all that food I’ve written about. I so wished they would invite me over. Then I liked writing of the illicit pleasures of eating a boiled egg. I am not a vegetarian, but it was good to get the taste and feel and sensations of something so ordinary as a boiled egg.
