In Kerala, the traditional meal is not divided into starter-main-dessert: everything is laid out at once on a large banana leaf, around a central mound of rice. Dozens of small portions — vegetable stir-fries (thoran), lentil soup (sambar), pickles, spiced buttermilk, and a milk-based dessert (payasam) served in the middle of the meal — create a balance of flavours that you eat in a specific order, from left to right. Arundhati Roy's daily life is rooted in this vegetarian, local grammar, punctuated by fish for family meals.

Kerala cuisine is recognized by its founding trio: fresh grated coconut (often ground with cumin in a mortar), curry leaves crackling in hot coconut oil with black mustard seeds, and locally grown red matta rice. It is this signature that Arundhati Roy associates with her childhood in Aymanam, the village of Ayemenem that inspired *The God of Small Things*.