Jawed observes that the epidemic is a parody of the world. Bitingly ironic, the dream of a clean India turns into a nightmare of disgusting pollution. This narrative gains currency and people grow convinced that the contaminated water is just a rumour. Newspapers report that the military shot him dead while he was trying to sneak into the prohibited area. The pipeline passes through a firing range and a bullet hits the plumber as he returns. The media publicizes it but a plumber entering the pipeline finds many carcasses. A doctor claims he has solved the mystery of the raging pandemic - it has been caused not by a virus but a bacterium in no way related to water pollution. The stink begins to feature prominently in television debates. Read more: Review: The Paradise of Food by Khalid Jawed The author’s narrative dexterity makes the ludicrous believable and every human action becomes a part of the food discourse. The preparation of particular dishes also foretell catastrophes like the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Since childhood, the kitchen has been the central character’s favourite place, even the place where he has assassinated people. In the kitchen, characters turn mean, violent, and jealous.
Cooking is fraught with many dangers and kitchenware can be used as a weapon. Its fire gives birth to affection, affinity, intimacy, hatred, violence and envy. The protagonist repeatedly says that the kitchen is the most dangerous place. Jawed too seeks to unravel the various layers of the interlacing of cultures. Here, the orphaned boy Barber’s painful life-altering situation subtly resembles that of Midnight’s Children’s Saleem, who uses taste and smell to puzzle over the discourse of national identity in India.
It is true that food preferences denote whether we are adherent or defiant toward traditional values.
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