Another Canadian writer on the shortlist, Yann Martel, also has an India connection. Martel may not have spent his first 25 years in India like Mistry, but he got a taste of it with his diplomat parents. India—and an Indian—is the inspiration for his second novel, Life of Pi, based on the true story of an Indian who sold animals to zoos abroad. It was begun during a trip Martel made to India a couple of years ago. Described as "a boys’ adventure for grown-ups", the odds seem to favour Life of Pi in the new pop-lit version of the old award.
Cookbooks have always been big business. There was Madhur Jaffrey, whose A Taste of India bought her a country manor near New York. Then there’s Tarla Dalal and her clones like Nita Mehta, both of whom churn out cookbooks at such a rate they’ve opened their own publishing houses to bring it out. Bestselling author Deepak Chopra (of Seven Spiritual Laws of Success fame) has now added a new dimension: a soul to his recipes. His latest, The Chopra Center Cookbook, dips into the usual fount of yogic wisdom with truths like "Food nurtures not only the body but the soul". These recipes are guaranteed to carry you to a spiritual high, like Mother Earth’s Apple Pie. Mud pie, and attitude!
