Interview: Nandita Godbole, author of NOT FOR YOU

If you read my review of Part 1 of Not For You by Nandita Godbole, you know how much I enjoyed it. The second part which released in March this year is equally good, so I wanted to interview Nandita to learn more about the book.Part 2 follows the lives of two couples - Damodar and Aruni, Ratanlal and Shanta - and their descendants, from 1940s India to present day Atlanta, Georgia.The women in each generation face different challenges. Aruni (whose name was changed to Pearl, per Hindu custom) is Jewish and struggles with being accepted in Hindu society; Shaku, Shanta's granddaughter, deals with the complications of being married to a police officer; Ana, Shaku's daughter, copes with immigrant life in America.Not for You was featured on NBC News and has been receiving rave reviews. It was fascinating to learn about the story behind the book and Nandita's writing process. Here's the interview.

Not For You is based on your family’s history and your book is dedicated to your father. Why was it important for you to write this book?

The book began as a conversation with my father, his mother, and about his childhood, his memories were laced with sadnessthat came from social and religious discrimination, isolation, bias, and a life of very limited means. He and his brother found comfort and contentment in the simplicity of village life, in the brotherhood of a few friends and in extremely ordinary things, including ordinary everyday meals like steamed rice, varan and a spoonful of home-made ghee, or even a pot of khitchidi with a cracked egg on top. They both loved to eat, no matter how simple the food was, and would appreciate their meals primarily for who made it, then the effort, and lastly, its flavor. They grew up to recognizing the value of every simple meal and every hard-earned paisa - wether earned from selling their homegrown mangoes, or in their adult life, from their paychecks. They vowed to rise above the sadness, to promote communal harmony, equality, and fairness, and despite their tough childhood, rose to be well-respected, and decorated police commissioners. Their struggles put whatever I considered simple and ordinary - to shame.When he passed away shortly after I started writing the book, my mother shared parts of her own life story and much of it revolved around food. Her life too was colored with similar 'isms' - sexism, ageism and bias. I realized the larger role comfort food had played in their life: it brought them together in a manner that nothing else could have. Although life was tough for both, they persevered despite their challenges, limitations, or the many times they were denied their rightful place at the table.As a cookbook author, I find a great demand for fancy, opulent, festive and celebratory meals. I decided to take the time to pay homage to the humble, to the simple, to the ordinary, to recognize the beginnings of life journeys, because THAT truly feeds the soul. If a dish lacks spirit, soul or the essence of comfort, it does not deserve a place at my table. 

The book spans multiple geographies and you capture the sights and smells of each place so well in your writing. What was your process for researching and writing the novel?

Thank you.I have always been enamored by the spirit of a place - whether it is one I live in or one I visit. The people, the landscape, the seasons, the community: human and wildlife - make up a 'feel' of a place, therefore it was essential for me to capture their dynamic interplay, to take readers there, through my descriptions. These were deliberate inclusions because our lives do not unfold in a vacuum, they are connected to other people, places and eventually shape nostalgia. Historical accounts found in newspapers, or gazetteers give public information, they do not share the stories of what happens to individual families.I spent many months researching places as I wrote them, going back into historical records, some land deeds, school and college records, university exam papers (to understand how schools and colleges operated in the early 1900's), historical maps, old railway records, gazetteers, shipping records and passenger lists (for Thakor's international trips), and also archived local and international newspapers for snippets of reporting from 'from one of the British colonies', aka India. Then I looked at old photographs of how men and women dressed, from fashions to hairstyles, photos from tourists travelogues, old films, read about tribal folklore, and much more. It shaped the portraits of many of the characters.In addition, my grandfathers' politically inclined autobiography 'Bandilki-chi Waatchaal' gave me a lot of information about his activities as a young Satyagrahi in the 1930's onwards along the west coast of India, as well as spoke to people affected by the Sino-India war, and what it meant to the family of a captured soldier of the Indian Army.I have lived in many of these places myself as well or traveled to them and I was surprised how much one remembers looking at photographs of places one has visited! My background in Landscape Architecture helped me (tremendously) as I was able to interpret the pieces of information I found and layered it with what I knew. My background in Botany helped me share the relationship between people and common seasonal produce (ethnobotany) for food and medicine (pharmacognosy and Ayurveda), as well as tying in grandma's remedies and things I have picked up and learned along the way. 

I was fascinated by Aruni's character. She was discriminated because she was Jewish, so as a reader you empathize with her. Yet, you question some of her choices, particularly towards the later part of her life. I'm curious, in writing and researching your family’s history, which character made the most impact on you?

Aruni was an interesting character to develop - she had a very conflicted life - from personal choices to those that were made for her, in life and in death. She was riddled with doubt and that is what I reflect on when sharing her story.Without giving too much away, all the women's life stories impacted me, both during the writing process and after. I admire Johariba, for her bold determination and the emotional strength of a Rajput woman, Shanta - for following her heart, Mani-ba for her struggles as the first working woman of her family, and Shaku for her unwavering and single-minded commitment to the wellbeing of her family. I admire the dedication and family values of Mukki and Sumati Atya. They all shape the book. 

In Not For You, the ingredients available in a particular place influence the types of dishes that are prepared. How has living in Atlanta (or the U.S.) influenced your cooking style?

Living in Atlanta in this day and age means I have access to many traditional fruits and vegetables from India, in richly stocked produce stores. Okra, bittermelon and Opo squash, once considered luxury produce when I came to the midwest in the mid-1990's are easy to find. I am experimenting with local greens, but also appreciating the 'southern-ness' of the kitchen, like fried pickles, fried green tomatoes, and even shocking myself and my family by making batter-fried chicken, skin and all - something I would have never considered in India. Cooking is about using what is available in the markets easily and not just living on nostalgia for what one cannot find. 

What are you working on next?

I have a few books planned, an expanded version of the recipes included in NFY, called Treasured Comfort Foods of India, an expanded version of my book on Roti's, and a true crime book, based on my fathers' career as an Indian police-officer in Bombay, during its 1970-1990.

...

If you like multigenerational stories, historical fiction or food memoirs, I think you'll enjoy Not For You.The book is a great pick for book clubs because there's so much to discuss.I look forward to reading more of Nandita's work in the future.