Some food for thought

There is something for everybody in Manisha Lakhe’s debut novel The Betelnut Killers, and a characteristic flavour above that. Lakhe, the founder of Caferati, compares writing a book today to whipping up a dish. She says, “When you try to put everything into every dish, they all begin to taste the same. Today, people want a more distinct taste. In most of today’s novels by Indian writers, there is too much of Indian-ness put together. Everything is made up to be so exotic. Our Indian authors are definitely not helping the cause.”

Taking a slice out of her own life as an NRI residing in US, Lakhe puts together an amalgamation of obsession over anything foreign, Indian stereotypes and a whole lot of zing into her book. The Betelnut Killers recounts the antics of Portland-based grocery owner Chimanbhai Shah whose world goes topsy-turvy when sexy Supriya opens a rival store. He hires Osmanbhai, a Mumbai supari killer to get rid of his competitor.

Interestingly, Lakhe confirms that director of Quick Gun Murugan Shashanka Ghosh will be making a movie on the novel. In fact she says that the screenplay for the same was written and kept on the backburner even before Lakhe found herself a publisher. She laughs and points out, “Shashanka, Mahesh (her husband Mahesh Murthy) and I have been friends since a really long time.

We have seen each other’s kids grow up. I was once complaining to him about this grocery store in US and the limited choice we Indians have while buying pickle in US, and that’s why I wanted to kill its owner. We thought, why don’t we make a movie on it?”

The bizarreness of life in the US and the tug of war between the traditional and the modern also finds their way into the novel. The author says, “We live such a bizarre life in the US. NRIs living there have got this little mini-India to themselves. I learned to laugh at it quickly.”

Lakhe maintains that one of the driving forces behind writing this book was to make sure that her home country would not be represented as just an “exotic” mystery. She says, “No one talks about a girl in a mini skirt in Bandra anymore. I am not talking about it either but I definitely do not want to sound as The Mistress of Spices.”

Referring to novels written by NRI writers today, Lakhe ruefully questions, “They are still residing in Shantiniketan. Who cares about that? The India these guys are writing about does not exist any more. There is some serious nonsense going on as Indian writing.”