Man falls for woman or vice versa, they have a courtship and then marry and live happily ever after. Alphabet Soup for Lovers would have remained just another of these predictable love stories but for author Anita Nair’s clever introduction of wordplay through food!
The central pivot of the story is the cook Komathi, who works in the home of Lena, a housewife who is married to civil lawyer KK. They live in a pretty cottage in the Annamalai hills tea plantations and jointly run a guest homestay. Leema — a combination of Lena and Amma — is how Komathi calls her. She is the narrator in the novel and each chapter begins with a different alphabet named after South Indian food. In between, she shares her thoughts about Leema.
There is an absence of messy emotions between KK and Leema, the sort that can throw people off-kilter. They don’t question and judge and this allows them to remain wedded to each other. According to Komathi, the pair is like two strangers in a doctor’s waiting room. Not like a husband and wife who ought to rub and jostle each other like a pot within a cauldron.
Along comes a popular actor Shoola Pani who is facing a personal crisis. He felt he had ceased to be a man and had turned into a commodity, whose star value everyone wanted to grab. Drawing from her experience of a failed relationship, Komathi mentally compares it with that of Lena’s blossoming romance with Shoola. Komathi mentally goads Lee and Ship (as they call each other) in their blossoming relationship. She wants Leema, whom she has known as a six year old to be strong and decide for herself. It is about wresting control of one’s own life, something Komathi says she failed to do.
She knows that Leema did not marry for love, her ward had the notion that it was best to marry a man she didn’t love rather than one she did. Leema doesn’t believe in love. There is duty, responsibility, tenderness, affection, lust even. Love is something we created to explain our erratic behaviour, Leema tells Komathi when the latter asks her about KK.
The romance travels from the first chapter Arisi Appalam all the way to Zigarthanda capturing the rush of first love, the infatuation, the deep desire and longing, the tiffs and misunderstanding that only cements the bond, the overwhelming exhilaration and finally the realisation that one is in love. The story ends inconclusively with Leema making a last minute decision, which according to Komathi is like Zigarthanda, a drink that makes one step out into the unknown, not thinking what one has left behind or one that lies ahead.
The slim delightfully illustrated novel’s alphabet journey includes a range of South Indian items such as Filter Kaapi, Oorkai (pickles), Murungakkai (drumstick) and Qollu (horesgram), among others. Nair through her beautiful descriptions of the hills recreates the charms of the countryside and the imagery brings alive the idyllic location. If not for its sweet plotline, this 2015 novel is also worth a read for its descriptive language. It has been published by HarperCollins.