No Onions Nor Garlic

by Srividya Natarajan

Amandeep, Murugesh, Rufus and Sundar are bucks who talk dirty for the same reason that they remove the mufflers from their motorcycle exhausts— it makes them feel like men. Like libertines. To their hormonal despair, when Professor Ram stages his remake of A Midsummer Night's Dream at their college fest, he casts these four as fairies. The farce that follows gradually takes over the lives of the rest of the characters in this achingly funny novel about the pratfalls that accompany caste pride. On and off the campus of Chennai University, you will encounter onion-and-garlic-free TamBrahms who rewrite Shakespeare to uphold the Hindu order, smug NRIs who call the shots in matrimonials, visiting Canadians who are aghast at the plight of Dalits (pronounced 'daylights') and, at the apex of the whole tumbling structure, a bibulous builder who invokes the gods even as he defrauds his clients. Tailing the characters around this plot is an unseen but all-seeing spectator. You may never guess who that is, but will laugh all the way to the answer.

Genres: Fiction, Humor

326 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Srividya Natarajan received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Hyderabad in 1998, and spent the next seven years as an editor, writer, and illustrator of children's books. She has also taught and performed Bharatanatyam for many years. Srividya now lives in Canada where she teaches English at King's University College, University of Western Ontario, writes in her spare time and finds time for occasional collaborations with the Toronto-based in Dance. Her first novel for adults, No Onions Nor Garlic was published by Penguin India.

Reviews

[Ramkumaar Shanker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Frankly I didnt go beyond a few 50-100 pages.I picked up this book presuming the plot or the story is a nice vivid description of the Tambram culture probably in a long-lost civilization. Unfortunately the author's sattire and cliche can really get irritating.You can blame it partly on the fact that the Tambrahm image might influence the reading. However too many references to toilet habits and personal behaviour can seem to be a highly gross generalization. The subtle references to Chennai and the Munniyandi Vilases' might appear amusing but the references are always to the present and hence can definitely be misleading in places where readers want to relate to the readings.Not that the readers head to Munniyandi Vilas but to bring in a bias in terms of a fictional plot is too high a price to pay. As much as I dont want to generalize a few things, it seems very easy for the NRI Tambrahms(not all) to grab a pen and weave a story of dry humor and sattire and end up showcasing literary skills with a regional flavor rather easily and grab a few brownie points. In recent times, Chetan Bhagat did the same with a so-called reference to 2 states post marrying a Tambrahm which was a big hit amongst the new breed readers and the south-indian bashers particularly. A few weeks ago, Navjot Sidhu did a very gross reference to Chennaites mocking at the speed with which they gobble food,again an ignorant reference. Harsha Bhogle was quick to bring the reference to the anvil and correct Sidhu on the same. The fact that the community at times is quiet bolsters the new found attempts at bringing anything and everything that they do under a scanner and make a mockery out of it.
Back to the review, I didnot go beyond 100 pages since I felt there was nothing to keenly look forward to but mere ramblings of a lost plot. I checked the online reviews for the book and incidentally noticed a few of the author's friends trying to post their reviews very subtly disappointed yet a mere acquaintance forces them to gently pat the author.
A big thumbs down for the same!!!

[Bhargavi Balachandran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deliciously irreverent !!!

[Rakesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy laughing out loud then this is a book for you. It reminds me of E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia books.

"The ikkat that Sachu wore seemed to reproach Mrs. Ram's Kanchipuram silk the way antique jewelry reproaches rolled-gold from Burma Bazaar."

[Smitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious!!!!! Being a south-indian it was easy to relate. the whole TamBrahmAss drama is so true and funny

[Ramji · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book made me vow that I will never read Indian authors again. I stopped reading for a while after this book....

[Vikas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can't for the life of me I am remember anything from this book and I have no plans on rereading it soon so here I go again unhaul the book it is.

[Nethra Ram · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can appreciate this book the best if you were raised in the background that forms the backbone of this novel and is dealt heavy sarcastic blows from start to finish. The narrative details left me in splits most of the time and I feel super smug over the fact that my community has a knack at satire and humour that is quite unmatched in the greater picture.

That said, this story does bring out the extreme prejudice that runs through the concept of caste (I hold it strongly that the Brahmin perspective of prejudice is only one angle. The pendulum swings both ways) in a country like mine that has absolutely no dearth for differences no matter how loudly we claim to be stringing all of them together and labelling it with the more sophisticated term 'diversity'.

My one strong rouse about this book is the crapload of toilet humour (pun kinda intended) and tedious exaggerations that suffocate the truly hilarious parts and test your patience. There is an actual instance of someone defecating in the middle of the road. If only Ms. Natarajan hadn't stretched it too far. I did manage to ignore these road-bumps and plough through to the end that offers a nice culmination of unfortunate circumstances. The one other thing completely unnecessary was the odd butting in of a first person narration. The summing up would've sounded equally good with a third person perspective as well. Fair job overall.

[Padmapriya · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started off very well.. but lost momentum mid-way.
I was cliniging with the book in vain hope that the initial momentum will come back.
Alas!!
and with a high drama ending, i just wanted this book to get over somehow.

I feel this book ticks the humour side but the exaggerated tambram content is too much for me to digest.

[Swathi Sridharan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely has some very funny moments :

"Third-rate pseudo avant-grade theatrical mayiraandi!" Totally cracked me up!!

On the other hand, book has whole paragraphs of factual, analogies based satire - got too cumbersome to read at times.

[Satyajit Chetri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book about 15 years ago, when it came out, and have been circling it for a reread multiple times. Chickened out every time because I thought it would not hold up. Was in for a surprise then. It feels even funnier and with fifteen years of added relevancy. Ms Natarajan, I wish you wrote more.

Professor Ram felt that the pendulum of political reaction, as he called it, had swung too far in the pro-low-caste direction. It was heart-rending, Professor Ram said, how the Reservations Policy was just snatching the curd-rice and mango pickle from the mouths of twice-born boys, especially Brahmins.

Now the government described the Reservations Policy as a kind of positive discrimination that favoured hitherto downtrodden minorities and castes. A great many misguided people, such as the Subaltern Historians, thought that being downtrodden was the experience of many of the sons and daughters of Mother India, and that this happened when the heel of some powerful and vicious party on top of the pile came down heavily on the neck of a helpless party at the bottom of the pile. But it was patent to Professor Ram, and to all the top-notch, top-caste historians like Drs Iyer, Iyengar, Chaturvedi, Namboodiri, Trivedi, Shastri and Pandit, that at least since the 1960s, the boot was on the other foot. These eminent thinkers pointed out that a certain reverse troddenness— or
'trodditude', as Dr Chaturvedi preferred to put it— had come into being, whereby those people, such as the parayar, at the very bottom of the caste hierachy, had manoeuvred their persons into a position from which they were able to apply the foot-leather to those people, such as the Brahmins, at the summit of the pile. As lyer et al (1991) have observed, the 'so-called scheduled castes stomp with an upward motion and grind the upper castes into the stratosphere with an unprecedented gravity-defying aggression, a phenomenon to which we may apply the term "uptroddenness". The lower orders in general being uncontrolled breeders, the numbers of feet all pressing upwards against the depleted Brahmin ranks are, literally, legion, and the consequences of this, when one factors in toe-jam, and the nearly solid pall of atmospheric pollution over every major metropolis which offers an increasingly effective surface to stomp the victims against, are, as may easily be imagined, devastating' (emphasis mine). Some of the individuals at the very apex of the pile, like Sachu's nephew Ramki, felt very suffocated and up-pressed indeed (to use a term that Dr Chaturvedi has recently coined), so much so that they retreated to realms ever more rarefied and cultural, or sought the blessings of the greenbacks goddess in the land where the silicon chip lived cheek-by-jowl with the potato chip, or in any other place where the dollar was considered legal tender, for the dollar was one of the few poultices that effectively stopped the pain of uptrodden-ness. This was forcing, as Shastri, Shastri and Rao (1995) put it, 'the Westward flight of genuine talent and intellect that is so characteristic a feature of our times'

If you are still with me, dear reader, you will grant that Professor Ram's wrath was righteous. But you probably wish to know if it was based purely on abstract and theoretical considerations.

Not at all.

[Rumz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The blurb on the back cover doesn't quite describe the story well. While the book offers moments of humor, particularly in its satirical treatment of traditions and the caste system, its appeal may be somewhat limited to audiences with cultural familiarity.
Throughout the narrative, there are instances where the author's wit shines, particularly in vividly depicted scenes such as the initial familial discussions surrounding marriage, which are rendered with remarkable clarity. However, the conclusion of the story feels rushed, lacking the same depth and attention to detail found in earlier passages. This hurried pace suggests a potential disjunction between the author's narrative intentions and the execution of the story's resolution. Overall, while certain scenes are vividly portrayed, others, such as the concluding conference, appear somewhat exaggerated and lacking in coherence.
Not recommended for anyone who doesn't understand "Indian English".

[Saanvi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me in splits! Legit so funny- It was a unique experience for me since I rarely read Indian lit and that too South Indian literature. I was introduced to a lot of elements of South Indian culture and language. The social commentary was nicely satirical. Though the humor bordered somewhat on inappropriate jokes, it was a cool book.

[Nikhil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny take on campus life.

[Skandan · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a fiction its okay with a few funny parts, but boy oh boy is the author bitter about a certain caste! Mostly coming from their personal experience I suppose.

[Sumeet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad at all. Breezy read. Funny in parts. Absurd in others. But for some crazy reason I didn't mind the caricaturing!

[Prakhyath Rai · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book begins with the cool sea breeze of scorching hot summer of Chennai battling against the builder Mr.Sheshadri that no matter how many towers he raises the blowing wind cannot be stopped. While Mr.Sheshadri determined to win by placing stone-n-cement in possible corner of the coast of the city. There is also Prof.Ram, challenging the world literature with his spiritually-creamed Midsummer Night’s Dream play, in which he plays the narrator of the drama, while his students are fit into other characters or rather pushed, stuffed and cello-taped into the characters. Prof.Ram is a man who highly thinks of his caste and is devoted towards refining education “TamBrahm” style. One of his students is Sundar, who though is a TamBrahm too, but falls his heart to a pretty non-tambrahm girl.

Read more here:
http://www.merrybrains.com/book-revie...

[Sanjana Agarwal · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Dai, FAIRIES'

One should seldom start a review with a quote from the book that has helped itself from another book. Bit Inception-alistic. However, this case, I am willing to do so. This book left me in splits, had some really cheeky, sardonic and satirical humor. Some comical blows, many puns (totally intended) and misspellings aimed at a particular accent which only intensified the legitimacy of the sarcasm.

Now, I look back, maybe the author might have gone a bit far, nevertheless, it was amusing and playful. My copy is filled with pencil markings of underlined words and their meanings, aplenty of them. Which just shows, maybe, just a tiny bit, that the author knew what they were doing.
I harrowed through the book in a single setting and found myself searching for more books by the author.

Definitely give it a read!

[Nitya Iyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just hours after I read the first few pages, I found myself quoting them to my husband to describe the sea breeze I remembered from my childhood to the one we were currently feeling.

That's why I enjoyed this book so much. I recognized the characters (as overblown as they were) because they are a part of my history. I recognized the language they used, I've heard family speak that way. I even recognized the experiences they were living through, because I've lived through some of them myself.

To have all those familiar elements tossed into a pot with a heavy sprinkling of dark humor and literary references, stirred briskly and returned to me on a plate garnished with wit was a pleasure.

[Akshara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the funniest book I have read in a long, long time! Pretty much on the lines of the legend, PG Wodehouse, the author has put together a hilarious collection of comedy of errors that eventually culminate in a grand finale and suddenly, all is well in the world when the last page is turned.

The author has taken standard Indian beliefs and superstitions and laced them with satire and grim sarcasm. The dark humour enhances what would have otherwise been a very racist story! Totally, totally recommend it. Can't wait to read it again :)

[Pooja Kalloor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an absolute surprise find. This is a funny book which takes on Tamilian Brahmins. Mind you it is written by a Tamilian brahmin. I found it to be a good read. Try it sometime. It's an easy light-hearted read.
Disclaimer: This is no psychotic way means disrespect to people of any community or religious beliefs.

[Sumeetha Manikandan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first 50 pages of this book is hilarious. Especially the description of the play and the so-called brahmin version of midsummer night's dream will catch you laughing. But as the book progresses, there is so much of toilet humor that is enough to make you cringe. I plodded on and finished the book though but felt disappointed in the end. It started so promisingly :(

[Sumanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

very good start....i felt like an english aristocrat reading P.G. Wodehouse...very authentic description of the tam brahm way of life....but she kinda screws it towards the end...very bollywood finish...like she was bored of writing and just wanted to finish it!!

[Aditi · Rating 4 out of 5]

when I went to lib I had no intentions of reading this book until my husband handed it over to meto read it

The first 30 odd pages r boring but then the book picks up its momentum and story gets very interesting

[Simran Khurana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hilarious Bollywood style roller coaster ride full of slapstick comedy and satire. If you are a south Indian, you will appreciate the book more. I did. And I laughed my head off as I could relate to the caricatures that the author had created for the good old tambrahms. Simply hilarious! Do read.

[Divya Bharath · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious to the core and extremely imaginative. Absolutely loved how I could relate to all the nuances of a typical Tam-Brahm household and it's strings :) A strong social message is hidden in the hilarity and simplicity of the book.

[Clitus Fernandes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a difficult time reading this , it is relatable for those who were raised in that background and the story doesn't keep you hooked up and is very slow that's the main problem. But the plot is slightly okay and better than the whole book .

[Rajesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

hilarious !

[Sandhya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very simple, humorous read, which deals with a serious issue of un-touchability along with some other minor issues like dowry, nepotism in the universities etc. Has quite an unexpected end.

[Somya Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humorous...I might not be a tam brahm but still could correlate to all the madness.

[Srividya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt this book showed me the version of some of the thoughts running deep within the South social set up. Enjoyed it.