INTERVIEW

Discussion questions

Devi Veturi, the protagonist of Serving Crazy with Curry, and Amulya Malladi met at an indiscriminate time and place to have this conversation. In the middle of the conversation things went a little crazy as Shobha, Saroj and even Vasu showed up to chat (accuse?).

Devi:
In the first version of this book, which you titled “Thicker than Blood” I die and then my sister, Shobha becomes the protagonist. What happened? How did I live?

Amulya:
Well, you did die in the first version. I wrote about 200 pages of that book and then realized that it wouldn’t work. I couldn’t sleep at night and feel content about how the book was falling into place, so I knew that it needed to be scrapped. I scrapped it and went back and wrote it again and again and again. That suicide scene where you slit your wrists has been written innumerable times. But then, one day, it struck me that you’d live, you’d stop speaking and you’d start cooking weird food. And the title of the book would be “Serving Crazy with Curry.” It all just fell into place…like magic.

I have a question for you. Why did you try to commit suicide? Someone who read the book said to me that this kind of bad stuff happens to lots of people and lots of people don’t kill themselves.

Devi:
Lots of people are not me. I think it’s important to remember that my emotions and my feelings are different from everyone else’s. You are probably strong enough to deal with a loss of career, loss of a baby, loss of a man in your life and loss of self respect, but I wasn’t. And like I said it was not just a careless thought, it was planned. I really wanted to die. I couldn’t see any reason to live. Imagine this, you hate going to sleep every night because tomorrow is going to be the same empty day and when you finally go to sleep you hate waking up because it’s going to be the same crappy day. I think after a while you reach a point where you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and it all becomes pointless.

Amulya:
But now you’re smart enough to know that killing yourself was not such a bright idea.

Devi:
It’s not fair to call it a stupid idea. It was what it was and it seemed like a good idea then. I can’t go back and live my life. I can only live forward. If I had to do it again, I hope I wouldn’t try to kill myself but I can’t be sure of that.

Amulya:
Now, the whole Girish business; were you really in love with him? Or did you sleep with him because he was Shobha’s and that would be a nice “F*** you” to your sister?

Devi:
I would never use language like that. That’s Shobha’s style.

But yeah, I think it was a little of both. I was in love with Girish and even though I knew I could never let Shobha find out about us, there was a small perverse pleasure in sleeping with her husband. But when I told her the truth there was no pleasure, perverse or otherwise. I was terrified of losing Shobha and I realized that I didn’t love Girish enough to lose my family. They were more important.

Amulya:
I have to know, why the cooking?

Devi:
I’d like to know as well. Since you wrote it in, why don’t you tell me?

Amulya:
Hmm…well, I think you started cooking all that fusion cuisine because you wanted to do something that was different, yet you wanted to hold on to what was. You wouldn’t speak, so you used food as a communicating medium. You expressed your feelings through it, joy, fear, boredom, anger…all of that.

Devi:
You mean, since I stopped speaking, as a result of my traumatic experience, I had to do something and cooking was it?

Amulya:
Absolutely! A budding hobby that I think will make a fabulous profession for you.

Devi:
I love to cook. The smell, the texture, the taste…everything. Do you cook?

Amulya:
I think you like to cook because I like to cook. Also, another reason why you were cooking like a veteran chef was because the kitchen had always been Saroj’s domain and your trying to take that domain away from her was a subconscious effort on your part to tell her that you can control your life since you can control her kitchen. You were asking her to back off. She saved your life but you didn’t want her to take control of it now that you were alive. And speaking of Saroj…I’d like to talk to you about your mother.

Devi (sighs):
Do we have to?

Amulya:
Well, I thought you all made up, nice and neat in the end.

Devi:
Your end is not my end and we didn’t make up nice and neat. Well, we’re on better terms than we used to be…but she’s still a pain in the ass.

Saroj:
Mind your language, Devi. Talking about your mother like this, you should be ashamed.

Devi:
This is a private conversation, Mama, you can’t just barge in.

Saroj:
There are no private conversations for you. After pulling a stunt like that in your bathtub, do you really think we’re going to let you talk to anyone you feel like without knowing what you’re talking about?

Devi:
Oh, Lord! Here she goes again.

Saroj:
One thing I want to make clear. I am not a terrible mother or a terrible cook. You kept saying that all the time, Amulya, and it hurt my feelings.

Amulya:
I…I…am sorry…ah, well, so, how are you doing since your mother passed away?

Saroj (shrugs):
It is very hard to lose a mother…a parent. Now I remember her with great joy, but I also know that if she was alive I would still be despising her.

Amulya:
Do you think Shobha and Devi will always have mixed feelings about you?

Saroj:
Why should they? I have been a good mother. My mother was never around, I have always been around. They have no reason to dislike me or have mixed feelings about me.

Amulya:
And how are things with Avi?

Saroj (smiles):
Wonderful. I didn’t know about the letters, you know. I wish I had known what he was going through, I wish…maybe if I had known, I would have been different. I don’t know. But I am happy my marriage survived. I look at Shobha…so many boyfriends since the divorce…

Shobha (comes in and interrupts):
Don’t exaggerate, Mama. Just one. I have just one boyfriend and have had only one, this one, since Girish.

Amulya:
Vladimir?

Shobha (laughs and shakes her head):
Hell no! A guy who hits on a married woman is not a very nice guy. Actually, this is someone I met through my new job. I got hired as a director at Microsoft, did I tell you? It’s wonderful working there and I met him at this breakfast meeting. He works for MSNBC and…we clicked.

Saroj:
Clicked? My foot. He is some foreigner, from Scotland or Ireland or something.

Shobha:
He’s Italian. He has the accent, you know, gives me the goose bumps. Mama just doesn’t get it.

Saroj:
I do get it. You leave your good husband and sleep around like a loose woman. No shame, Shobha, you have no shame.

Amulya:
Well, looks like things are pretty much back to normal.

Shobha:
Of course. Did you really think things would change?

Devi:
I’ve got to go, a seminar at school. Jamie Oliver is coming. I’m so excited about seeing him.

Amulya:
So, things are going well at the culinary school?

Devi:
Fabulous! I already have three job offers for when I graduate next summer, one right here, one in Atlanta and one…in Europe.

Shobha:
Ask her where in Europe?

Devi:
I’m not leaving the US.

Amulya:
No plans to go to Oxford?

Saroj:
Why should she go to Oxford? She has a job in San Francisco. She will take that.

Devi:
I’ll probably go to Atlanta. I don’t know. I haven’t made any decisions. Look, I really have to go now.

Amulya:
It was nice talking to all of you.

Saroj:
You make sure you clear it up that I am a good cook and a good mother.

Shobha:
She will, Mama, she will.

Everyone leaves.

Amulya:
Whew! Odd to have a conversation with people I created. Very odd! Maybe I need to get some help.

Vasu:
Before you do that, maybe you and I should talk.

Amulya:
You’re dead.

Vasu:
Sure. But then none of us really exist and you’re still chatting away with us. So does it really matter that I am dead?

Amulya:
Okay. What do you want to talk about?

Vasu:
I think you misunderstood me. I loved Shekhar, yes, but I also loved Saroj, very much.

Amulya:
Not just as much.

Vasu:
But I loved Devi more than anyone else. I thought about it and realized that you made a mistake. You show me as this selfish woman…

Amulya:
Never selfish. You were a woman with screwed up priorities, but you were never selfish.

Vasu (smiles):
That is something then. I don’t want people to think that I don’t have the capacity to love. I loved my daughter, my granddaughters, Avi, even Girish. I loved them all. But I also loved Shekhar.

Amulya:
I understand. You held the family together in many ways. I think Saroj wouldn’t have fought to make things work with Avi if you hadn’t been her mother. Devi would’ve broken Shobha’s heart and her parents if she didn’t know what it means to love a married man through you.

Vasu:
I guess I gave them the good with the bad. So, does Devi have a new man in her life?

Amulya (grins):
I think she’s still mooning over her sister’s ex-husband.

Vasu (smiles back):
They will make a lovely couple. She will love him madly and he will adore her…maybe they will get together; have children, the nice house…everything.

Amulya:
I’d like that. It would be scandalous enough and it would burn Saroj’s ass.

Vasu (laughs):
Well, thanks for the chat. I better get going. And as a doctor, my recommendation would be for you to get some help. It isn’t healthy, Amulya, to talk with characters in your books, dead or alive.

"If we were in India, this would've never happened," Saroj told Avi. "Girls don't commit suicide like this in India, not those from good families at least."

BUY THE BOOK
EXCERPT
REVIEWS
AUTHOR'S NOTE
READING GUIDE
INTERVIEW