Rishita Chaudhary

The subject matter can be dispiriting. But the books themselves are, I think, uplifting. None tries to ignore the brutal horror and devastation in the events it covers. None treats the victims as too remote to care about or the perpetrators as too monstrous to understand. None gives in to apathy, cynicism, or indifference. Instead, all make heroic

Recipes, the elementary forms of the culinary life, are missing in the great tradition of Hinduism.

While there is an immense amount written about eating and feeding, precious little is said about cooking in Hindu legal medical or philosophical texts... Food is principally either a moral or medical matter in traditional Hindu thought

• Arjun Appadurai,