HYDERABAD : Here’s the thing about self-discovery: It has a different course for everyone. It depends on the history of the person in question, their nature, their character, and also unfortunately, their status in society. And when you discover yourself through whatever medium works best, there is time before you can actually accept this version of yourself. Spirits in a Spice Jar, is a non-fiction book that tries to chart the author, Sarina Kamini’s journey to this destination.
Sarina Kamini was born to a Kashmiri Brahmin father and an Australian mother. When Sarina was 20, her mother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, something that Sarina refused to come to terms with. Years later, Sarina and her husband Scott live in Melbourne with their two kids Cailean and Ashok. And now, Sarina is plagued by the need to exorcise old demons and repair the strained relationship with her parents while freeing Scott of the emotional responsibility that she has thrust on him.
While the intent of the book is understandable, it is the execution that grates on the nerves. It starts off in a rather confusing manner, with relations and issues being so obscure in their descriptions that it gets annoying after a while. And not to forget, the concept of ‘I’m half- Hindu, living in Australia, and yet, I’m connected to my Hindu faith’ that keeps repeating itself throughout the book.
What makes the entire narrative worse is the talking in circles. She has the concept right, she knows what she has to do, and she understands why she has to do it. And then she comes back to the same point again. It makes you dizzy, the way the author is trying so hard and not coming up with a coherent way of bringing the points she wants to put out together, and fails.
These points are jumbled and scattered across the book and nowhere do they fit properly. They are abrupt and out of sync, are surrounded by forced paradoxes and metaphors, broken and fragmented sentences trying to sound poetic – these are what make up ‘Spirits in a Spice Jar’, language-wise.Sarina tries to find solace in food, but even she doesn’t help her cause when she makes the statement, “Food is not an antidote to boredom. Not a pathway toward spiritual enlightenment or the plot line for a quasi-philosophical narrative.” Because this statement goes completely against what she is trying to say in the entire book.
This book might be a piece of the author’s soul. Every book is. But how can one empathise with the author when her writing uses unnecessarily complicated language that drowns out the intent of the book? When a book blows hot one moment and cold the next, it gives you a headache, instead of the warmth and an understanding of a different psyche in a different situation that you are looking for. And while one hopes that the author has found the peace that she was looking for, ‘Spirits in a Spice Jar’ is a book that is confused in its narrative and could probably use some peace itself.
Publisher: Westland
Price: `499