I cook for fun. Translated that means I cook to save my life or to make sure I come across as politically correct. I also get inspired by Nigella Lawson. Actually, I also cook to have fun sometimes. As I did this time, when a colleague handed me a copy of the just released book Pondichery Kitchen by well-known linguist Lourdes Tirouvanziam-Louis.

I was intrigued. A cultural melting pot, the union territory is also known as a food lover’s paradise. I was not to be disappointed. Sure, pronouncing some of the dishes altered the contours of my tongue, but undeterred I went shopping on a Sunday morning and much to the amusement of the vegetable vendors, bought, what they figured was a strange assortment of shoots and leaves.