SPIRITS IN A
SPICE JAR

Spirits in a Spice Jar shows one woman’s way to find connection through spices. As a memoir with recipes, it marked the beginning of my work teaching and communicating spice. I didn’t know at the time where I would end up. The writing was a survival mechanism and I think that shows in the narrative: it is a deeply person, often circular, very intimate, and unusually revealing of internal Indian family dynamics. Spices are everything in Kashmiri Pandit homes—in most all Indian homes—and telling the tales they hold reveals aromatics in a new light. This is not a memoir for everyone. It holds recipes. Insights into Hinduism and the quotidian mythology that framed our household. I love it for what it’s given me: originally published by Westland Books in India in May 2018, Spirits has formed a part of the platform of my work with spice as it stands now.