We had known it would be hard to leave this island of women where on our skin the warm rain fell like pomegranate seeds, where we woke to birdcall and slept to the First Mother’s singing, where we swam naked without shame in lakes of blue lotus. To exchange it for the human world whose harshness we remembered. But this?” Tilo is commissioned to serve the community as a Mistress of Spices, to render the magical uses of spices to whoever asks for it, in Oakland, USA. There are pretty much a lot of rules and regulations, including the vow of not falling in love with a man, and of course, Tilo is the rebellious one. She breaks rules one by one to go out of her way to help resolve problems plaguing some of her favourite clients (and "bougainvillea girls"). The title character is put in an old woman's body for no real reason other than it seems the author thought an old crone tending a mystical spice shop seemed appropriate. And that makes the romance difficult to swallow. The spices have arbitrary rules for their mistress that seem designed merely to add conflict to the story. To earn money for her education, she held many odd jobs, including babysitting, selling merchandise in an Indian boutique, slicing bread in a bakery, and washing instruments in a science lab. At Berkeley, she lived in the International House and worked in the dining hall. She briefly lived in Illinois and Ohio, but has spent much of her life in Northern California, which she often writes about. She now lives in Texas, which has found its way into her upcoming book, Before We Visit the Goddess.

There were strict rules in keeping her magic powers. She knows that... "A good hand is not too light, nor too heavy. Light hands are the wind's creatures, flung this way and that at its whim. Heavy hands, pulled downward by their own weight, have no spirit. They are only slabs of meat for the maggots waiting underground." Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is the author of the bestselling novels Queen of Dreams, Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart, and The Vine of Desire, and of the prizewinning story collections Arranged Marriage and The Unknown Errors of Our Lives. Her writings have appeared in more than 50 magazines, including Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker. What role does physical beauty play in this story? In Tilo’s feelings about her body? About Raven? About the bougainvillea girls? Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior. I read this when I was in grad school, and it really made me examine my own role as a woman of color living in the U.S. It made me want to start writing about my own experiences. It made me think that perhaps I, too, had something worthwhile to write about. But the Spices are displeased, and things soon start to go sour in her relationships with her other customers. Haroun gets in an accident, Geeta's family situation does not improve, Jagjit falls in with the wrong crowd at school, and Kwesi's girlfriend breaks up with him. Doug comes to meet her that night and sadly tells her that his Native American-born mother had died.

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In Divakaruni's stories, women are wives and mothers, but the men are portrayed primarily as husbands, not fathers. How are the men's roles in the novels similar to or different from those in the stories?

Sebenarnya aku kayaknya menonton filmnya duluan baru baca bukunya ini. Setelah aku tahu bahwa penulisnya adalah salah satu penulis favoritku aku bergegas mencari bukunya yang ternyata masih ada di marketplace. A lot of sentimental stupidity, run-of-the-mill characterization, stereotyped depiction of US-based Indians, a senseless ending all mar such an innovative story-line. Good enough only for starry-eyed teenagers that devour adult novels in a hurry, or housewives that eat TV-serials for breakfast-lunch-and-supper, or for those movie-makers who are looking for such NRI tales with raunchy love-making scenes to create a film out of. You've got to believe a little bit in magic and fairy tales for this book. But there is enough realism embedded in the story to keep you captured. Add a cup of mysticism and a few pinches of romance, and you've got the Spice shop in Oakland California. From the outside it is just another shop from an old Indian immigrant lady selling them. However, it is soon clear that these spices are not only the exotic, culinary delights of the Indian cuisine that we love. In what ways is punishment seen as a natural force in this novel? How are punishment and retribution tied to balance?

The story itself is based upon how Indian superstitions, the culture and use of spices has influenced the western world, and is aimed at NRIs based in America. It shows us a piece of life of various kinds of people struggling to survive in a foreign land.

The New York Times Book Review states that The Mistress of Spices "becomes a novel about choosing between a life of special powers and one of ordinary love and compassion." Did Tilo choose correctly? Why or why not? Absolutely no chemistry at all between Aishwarya and Dylan McDermott - On the same point, the performances were average at best. I think the fault does lie in the script and the direction as no one had any real scope for performance and they were all just basically required to look good for the camera. She does not lose her magic abilities, only the power over the outcomes. The potions turn nasty, one mixture of chillies causes and earthquake when she tries to destroy it in the river. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning author and poet. Her themes include the Indian experience, contemporary America, women, immigration, history, myth, and the joys and challenges of living in a multicultural world. Her work is widely known, as she has been published in over 50 magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, and her writing has been included in over 50 anthologies. Her works have been translated into 29 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Hindi and Japanese. Divakaruni also writes for children and young adults.Her novels One Amazing Thing, Oleander Girl, Sister of My Heart and Palace of Illusions are currently in the process of being made into movies. http://www.chitradivakaruni.com/books.... Her newest novel is Before We Visit the Goddess (about 3 generations of women-- grandmother, mother and daughter-- who each examine the question "what does it mean to be a successful woman.") Simon & Schuster. How are physical acts of violence and disaster foreshadowed in the novel? What is the significance of foreshadowing in Indian culture?

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The potion which she mixes for herself to become a beautiful young woman for a day, works for her and Raven. However, she has to choose between a happy, yet short life with him, or remain the Spice mistress forever...

Mi colpì il nome dell'autrice, che non conoscevo... aveva un nome che sapeva di India... annotai nome e titolo sul palmo della mano e mi diressi nella prima libreria: preso! (conservo ancora lo scontrino come segnalibro!) Come spesso accade il libro rimase sulla mia scrivania per ben due anni. Non di oblio ma di abbandono per mancanza di tempo. Poi finalmente il momento giusto è arrivato: ed ecco spalancarmisi il mondo creato da Tilo, la Maga delle Spezie. Il profumo di cannella, zenzero, trigonella, dei semi di coriandolo "sferici come la terra, per farti vedere chiaro" si sparge realmente, si avverte palpabile. E poi lo zafferano, la Spezia della quale Tilo è servitrice. The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni DB 87874 transports you immediately with a literary-sensory explosion of color, scent, and touch to an exotic land of spices. This exotic land is Oakland, California, where a powerful immortal named Tilo keeps shop in a nondescript Indian grocery–disguised as an old woman. Tilo takes special care of each customer: learning their hearts desire, their greatest fears, challenges, and dreams of America. She chooses the perfect spice to complement their needs and aid them in all facets of their lives. We learn to love and root for these mortals, suffer their pain, elate in their joy. How does the Indian immigrant experience compare to that of other immigrants–Spanish, Italian, Chinese? About this Author

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A first novel by the author of the short story collection, Arranged Marriage , The Mistress of Spices is a mystical tale told by Tilo, a young Indian woman in an old woman's body who has been trained in the secret powers of spices. Her special knowledge leads her to Oakland, California where she uses it to help the local Indian community by opening a spice shop from which she administers spices as curatives. Tilo can see into people's hearts and minds but it is a mistress's duty to keep herself at a distance, "not too far nor too near, in calm kindness poised." However, Tilo is unable to obey her charge, and she becomes emotionally involved with her customers as they struggle with the demands of their families, the clash of the old way versus the American way, racism, abusive husbands-all of the complexities of living in the modern world. During graduate school, I used to work in the kitchen of the International House at the University of California, Berkeley. My favorite task was slicing Jell-O.