Amulya Malladi packs a punch, in Serving crazy with curry, her third novel.

Attempted suicide, betrayal, sex, secrets, lies, lovers, marriage and family, are fused together by the innovative South Indian cooking of our heroine Devi Veturi.

On Devi’s “to-do” list in the week the NASDAQ went down 600 points, is suicide, for reasons neatly ticked off. She gets into her bathtub and slits her wrists. To her great disappointment, her meddlesome mother Saroj saves her. Devi stops talking, moves in with her parents, kicks her mother out of her kitchen, and starts cooking.

A deeply dysfunctional family emerges. There is her “perfect” sister Shobha, Vice-president of a software company, in an arranged marriage to Professor Girish. But everything is not as it seems to be. There is also colorful grandmother Vasu, physician and matriarch, with secrets of her own and Avi, is their much-beloved, one-armed father.

 Although it might sound like the plot of a Bollywood movie, Amulya Malladi’s black humor is simply as irresistible as is Devi’s cooking.

When Girish asks Devi whether she thinks HE should get into a bathtub and fall silent, “Devi had half a mind to tell him that if he was planning to get into a bathtub, he should secure the deadbolt on the front door, just in case Saroj did a walk in”

 While watching a Hindi movie, Shobha  watches husband surreptitiously.

“He didn’t like Hindi movies, the intellectual snob. “This is not as bad as I thought it would be,” Girish said, making an exasperated sound as a young Indian woman came onscreen, wearing a thin red chiffon sari. And then predictably the skies above her rumbled with false thunder and rain started to fall, soaking her to the skin, displaying all her bodily assets.”

 Another theme that the book delves into is the dilemma of children growing up in a country that will never be “home” to their parents. Although the family has been in California for many years, only the children regard themselves as American. The recipes that Devi cooks up, strongly plays on the fusion of cultures, hence her “GRILLED CHICHEN IN BLUEBERRY SAUCE” and “CAJUN PRAWN BIRYANI.” All the recipes for Devi’s mouthwatering, spicy, flavorful, can-almost-taste dishes, are given in her own words, as she enters them into her journal.

'Serving crazy with curry' is a book that is impossible to put down once started. A highly enjoyable, colorful and  flavorful journey.

Maladi’s previous two novels are A Breath of Fresh Air and The Mango season.

 Serving crazy with curry, by Amulya Maladi is available everywhere, at a cover price of $12.95

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