Atlanta Author Pays Homage To Her Family Lineage With Latest Book ‘Ten Thousand Tongues’
Atlanta-based author Nandita Godbole celebrates her Indian heritage and family recipes in her new biographical fiction,”Ten Thousand Tongues: Secrets of a Layered Kitchen.” It also comes with a companion cookbook.
The stories pay homage to the eight female matriarchs in her family that inspired her culinary journey. Each of the sections in the cookbook are recipes from each of the matriarchs, spanning five generations.
“I began by talking with my father and I wanted to understand my own heritage in relation to his mother, who was born into the Jewish faith before she converted [to Hinduism]. The more I talked to him, I got the sense that there was a lot of hurt that had carried forward because people had misunderstood them as a family. Very shortly after the conversation with my dad, he had passed away,” she said.
“As part of the healing process, it was me talking with my mom and hearing her memories of her mother and her mother. As I pursued that conversation, I realized there there were so many women in my own family who had suffered because people did not understand them well. But they always found a way to make room for the next generation to have a better and easier life. So, what started with a conversation with my father, evolved overtime into collecting all these stories and making this biographical fiction book.”
This is her eighth cookbook she’s written about Indian cuisines.
She will be hosting a “secret supper series” on Oct. 11 and 12. You can register at: www.currycravings.com/supper