Once in a while you come across a novel that you grow fond of. You don’t really know why, in the end. The magic just happens. One such novel is “One Hundred Shades of White” (Harper Collins Publishers, London, 2003) by Preethi Nair,who was born in South India but has spent most of her life in London.

The story: Nalini runs away from home to Mumbai with Raul and from there she eventually finds herself in England with her children, Satchin and Maya, as a result of her husband setting up a business. One day he inexplicably abandons the family, leaving behind a heavy debt.

Nalini has to eke out a living in a country she knows nothing about. She struggles and is helped by Maggie who has fled from Ireland to England out of disappointment. Her good-for-nothing husband had “planted empty dreams in Maggie’s head and filled them with illusions” and had got her pregnant at fifteen. Nalini tells the children that the father is dead and they live with this idea.

Nalini marries Ravi Thakker, a businessman. Everything runs smoothly though there isn’t too much sympathy on Maya’s part for the new father. However, the children get along well with the new-born half-sister. Maggie and her son Tom help Nalini to start a small business involving pickles.

One day Raul meets his daughter Maya and says that it was the mother who had put an end to their relationship. This infuriates Maya. Why did her mother have to say that he was dead? Later on, she discovers that the father has other children. The truth dawns on her at last. The father’s deceit, dishonesty and irresponsibility bring her back to her mother. Misunderstandings are cleared up.

<B>Pickles</B>

Food is all-important in this novel. It is when Nalini is serving food at Raul’s place as a young girl that he falls in love with her. Later it is the pickles which Nalini is requested to serve to Ravi’s guests that will lead him to propose marriage. It can be said that the pickles here represent a new beginning.

Moreover, pickles allow the writer to delve into Maggie’s past. At one moment, she is putting the lids on the jars so that she can inhale the contents she so much adores and the smells take her down memory lane. We are given vital insights into her past in a town called Dara in the south of Ireland.

We also get to know a few interesting things about typical South Indian food. Food is a means of revealing character: Nalini derives satisfaction and experiences a feeling of fulfilment. Preparing pickles for sale makes her feel complete.

Maya is unhappy with the re-marriage of her mother. This is beautifully highlighted by depicting the girl, at table, sulkily playing with her food cooked by her mother, spreading it around the plate to make it less and then hiding the rice and vegetables under a piece of popadom. Touches like these make Nair’s writing vivid and pleasant.

Pickles are a source of humour too. When Ravi orders forty bottles a month, you have everyone having a good laugh over it, imagining him eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. It is good to see them laughing and joking, thus giving a new meaning to their shattered lives, rather than moping over their destiny.

When Ravi meets Nalini, he has no idea that she is married. One day as he is eating brinjal, she reveals that she has started a business because of her children. The brinjal almost falls out of his mouth. We are left to imagine his consternation.

Reconciliation between mother and daughter takes place against the background of deep-filled dosas with hot potato stew. The food of Maya’s childhood, coming from the depth of South India, makes her feel at home. Their shared passion makes life whole again.

<B>Warmth</B>

The novel has plenty of warm moments as well. Nalini’s own children and her newly-married husband coming to buy pickles at her newly-opened shop; Maggie and Tom going our of their way to provide help and companionship; Maya as a little girl trying to climb the stairs of her brother’s two-bedded house, shaking him to wake him up and the boy rolling over in a moment of fright and crashing to the floor. The mother is worried for the boy, kissing him, making sure that nothing has happened to him. She is furious with the girl but there’s the father (Raul) ready to protect his cherished daughter. A typical aspect of family life succinctly depicted which gets unmistakably imprinted in the mind.

The novel may be full of chopping, grinding, blending, mixing, boiling and frying. There may be aroma floating in the air, giving an originality to the book, but it is ultimately about women facing rough times with courage and dignity.

It’s always heartening to come across a few inspiring thoughts scattered across the pages, like “All your dreams come to nothing if you don’t really believe they’re possible.” Or “Sometimes there is no point in trying to figure out why; it is better to accept and to move on.”

Moving on, regardless of broken dreams and losses, is what the women in this novel do, learning, in the process, some bitter truths about themselves, about others and about life itself.

<B>Suresh RAMPHUL</B>