The Mistress of Spices is about magic, wielded by a woman masquerading as an old and bent creature, but
in reality, vibrant, eager for life, hungry with desires. Tilo, the
mistress of spices, has many disguises and names that reveal her multiple identities. Chameleon like, she keeps changing throughout the novel, making clear how complex is the problem of identity crisis that Indians try to cope with in a foreign land.
Accordingly, the narrator changes her name many times, like Bharati Mukherjee's Jyoti-Jasmine-Jane; from Nayan Tara to Bhagyavati to Tilottama and finally to Maya, the most appropriate name, since it means spell or enchantment
The spice shop, where the whole Indian community converges, is like a microcosm in itself. We see myriads of faces there--the bougainvillea girls, the rich men's wives, the Mohans and Jagjits and Kwesis. Each face tells a story. Many of their immigrant dreams lie shattered in the dust, but there are also some success stories. The ones most vivid among them are the faces of four whose fates are inextricably linked with that of Tilo, the spice and spell maker: Geeta, Lalita, Haroun and Raven.
The Mistress of Spices is cloaked in fantasy and the prologue, with its strong poetic overtone convinces us that this is literature of fantasy. However, a strong undercurrent of realism runs at the very
beginning of the novel and becomes manifest later on. What is astounding is that this dichotomy of fantasy and reality never jars on our senses. Divakaruni modifies ancient Indian legends and reinvents the myth of the bird of Shampati, whose name stems from the *Ramayana,* who, Phoenix like, rises from the ashes. The legend of Shampati, as a dominant theme, holds the story together.
However, as the novel progresses, the fantasy element diminishes and the realistic element becomes prominent. That is especially true of the story of Geeta, revealing the typical
conflict between Indian born parents and their westernized daughter. It is a clash of values, especially with the grandfather coming in between, trying to instill in his granddaughter some of the "sterling values" he had learned in India that are hopelessly outdated in this foreign country. The conflict comes to a head when Geeta's parents try to arrange a match for her in India and Geeta announces rebelliously that she is going to marry a Chicano, Juan Cordero.
According to her parents, Juan is even more of an outcast because he is not white. Geeta moves out and the family's conflict is only resolved when Tilo, like a medicine woman, steps in and performs her miracle with her spices, so that, as the grandfather says, the "thorn of hate" is plucked out from the heart.
Lalita's story does not have such a happy ending. Married to an abusive, tyrannical man, she casts aside her dreams of setting up her own tailor's shop in India, follows her husband to an alien land where she has no support, no friend or job. She places herself in her husband's power so completely that she is regularly beaten and bruised. In the end Tilo saves her, not by ministering physic but by giving her a newspaper clipping that has the address of an emergency shelter for women. Even at that shelter she is not happy, uncertain and afraid, longing to go back to her abusive husband, only for the comfort of staying in a home that is at least familiar if not secure.
Haroun, the cab driver is just such a victim as Lalita, but the mistress' timely intervention barely saves his life. Indeed, that section is so full of tension that it becomes quite gripping, even though in
general the plot's movement is quite slow. Haroun is mugged by some robbers at night, creeps back to his home like a wounded creature about to die, but his neighbors and Tilo nurse him back to health, so that he can at last plan to marry the sister of his neighbor. His luck seems to take an upward turn, however full of obstacles his path may have been at the beginning.
It is the last section, dealing with Raven and Tilo that knits together the many themes that run as separate strands throughout the book. It also vividly illustrates many of the complex conflicts that
multi-ethnic groups experience in this country. Raven's mother had concealed from him his background, his ancestry that made him ashamed of her. He also underwent a crisis when he took to drinks and drugs; but finally, like the raven, a counterpart of the mythical bird Shampati, he resurrected himself from the ashes of his old identity. It is at this moment that Tilo helps him and is in turn helped by him.
Quite apart from the convincing blend of fantasy and realism, Divakaruni succeeds in presenting to us a balanced picture of the world of immigrants in America. Not all of them are winners, but not all of them
are losers either. As a former colleague of Divakaruni, whom I knew in Presidency College, I was agreeably surprised to see that she has made such a name for herself. Her story proves that she is one
immigrant who came to the land of opportunities under the combination of auspicious stars. It spells a message of hope for many people in the future.