Tilo, the titular character, is a shopkeeper born in India and trained in magic, who helps customers satisfy their needs and desires with the mystical properties of spices. Her life changes when she falls for an American man named Raven, whom the book strongly implies is Native American. Unfortunately, she chooses to disregard the rules of her training in her pursuit of romance and her decision to seek out customers outside her shop, which results in the spices inflicting punishment on her and those she cares about. To save Raven from being another victim of the spices' powerful magic, she decides to leave him after one last night where they make love. Afterwards, she accepts the punishment for disregarding the rules of her training, which results in the store being destroyed in an earthquake. She survives, and she and Raven reconcile and decide to help rebuild the shop.
When her learning is complete, she is ordained as a Spice Mistress, and dispatched to work at a spice shop in faraway Oakland, California, in the guise of an old crone. There, she puts her healing powers to use for the good of the community, resolving their problems of lovelessness, guilt, anger, shame, and despair with the aromas of chilli, turmeric, ginger, and other spices.
In the end, Tilo decides to spend a night with Raven even though she knows that the spices will be resentful, and havoc will be caused in the lives of the people she cares about as punishment. What are the catastrophic repercussions when they finally spend a night together and become lovers? Does Tilo manage to save her customers from the wrath of spices? Are Tilo and Raven united in the end? You will have to read the book to find out!
The novel follows the adventures of Tilo, a mysterious figure who runs a grocery store in inner-city Oakland and uses her knowledge of spices to help her customers overcome difficulties. Tilo provides magical spices not only for cooking but also for the challenges that Indian immigrants in an alien land experience. She develops dilemmas of her own when she falls in love with a mysterious stranger she calls the Lonely American, as now she has to choose whether to serve her people or to follow the path leading to her own happiness.
The Mistress of Spices is the story of Tilo, who was born in an Indian village, and bore a different name, before she discovered she had certain powers with which she could summon those she thought of. Unfortunately for her, she accidentally summons a group of pirates who abduct her. However, soon, with her talents, she turns the tables on them and becomes their queen. She then hears the about an island, where an old woman lives, and imparts the knowledge of spices to those who have the gift needed to communicate with the spices. Those who have this gift are known as Mistresses.
At the end of their training, each Mistress is given a new name and is sent to a different part of the world, where they are to help people with the power of the spices. Tilo chooses her own name, and against the wishes of the Old One, wishes to go to USA. She then wakes up in the body of an old woman, in an Indian store in Oakland. Her customers include various Indian immigrants trying to make a living in the States, and she figures what each of them needs before offering it to them.
Linda - It is fun to learn more about spices isn't it? I wanted to update my blogroll for so long, finally got around to doing it yesterday.
Vaishali - I was shocked when I read that in an article online! Do share those recipes
Mythili - loved doing this. thanks for hosting MoS
Kritika - hey thats a nice idea. I am going to try using it in curries too
Diane - its such a beautiful plant (with a lovely name too). You are so lucky to have it in your garden. I read somewhere that the flowers are used in Italian dishes for ornamentation.
As the book unfolds, Tilo begins to weave her own desires into her use of the spices and unavoidably finds herself entering the real world where, free of the mystical powers of the First Mother, she has to make her own choices. In her actions lies a metaphor, perhaps, for the inner journey all immigrants must make as they cross the black water to America. The familiar aroma of their cherished spices is all that remains to connect them to an India whose assumptions they have--some more successfully than others--finally left behind.
As a Mistress of Spices, Tilo is bound to an ancient set of rules, and consequences loom if she is to step out of the bounds of her shop and duties. Her mission is to guide her customers through the wisdom of the spices. The power of the spices is only hers to wield as long as she follows their will. But as Tilo learns to love and care for her customers, she finds maintaining a boundary and accepting the spices will is harder and harder to do.
As Tilo strays farther from the will of the spices, consequences in the lives of her customers appear, wreaking havoc on her interventions. And a new complication arises: the Mistress, who is never to engage in mortal connection, is drawn to a lonely American who looks past her gnarled hands and wrinkled face, into her eyes, her soul. The connection is powerful, and it seems an impossible desire, but in this fantastical story of beauty and strength, readers find the will to hope.
A very rare spices available in costal reagion of karnataka n maharastra. very fragrant after fully ripenened and dried. in kokan area its used in all most all fish recepies. In very small quantity it gives good taste. A good appetiser,digestive, wormicidal medicinal properties. Paste of dried fruit can be applied over fore head in headache in small amount.
I was looking for the english name for this spice and landed here. Being a native of mumbai that is East indian and residing at bandra my mum would always make home made fish and meat masala store them into beer bottles. we call it Bottle masala.There are more then 21 spices that go into this concoction and tirphal is one of them.I guess very few people are familiar with this spice not to mention a few.. Dagad phool, Jaipatri, Maipatri etc. I think the English name for Triphal is Sichuan pepper.
Tirphal although looks similar to the Szechuan Pepper, but if you look carefully they both are different spices & they smell & taste different too. The Szechuan pepper available in chinese or thai shops is the Nepalese variety & not the south Indian one.
Rai plays Tilo, orphaned by some unexplained regional strife in India, kidnapped by bandits and, after escaping and being washed up on a beach, finally educated, along with other girls, in the magical properties of spices by an old woman (vet Zohra Segal). Next thing we see, Tilo has moved Stateside as an adult and is running a small spice shop-cum-dispensary in Oakland.
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