Muthekai 2021 -

Her daughter, Meena, hated it.

And every time she sprinkled that gritty, crimson fire onto her rice, she would remember: some things are not meant to be mild. Some things are meant to wake you up. muthekai

On a whim, she called her mother.

Years passed. Meena moved to Bengaluru for a job in finance. She ate almond-milk oats and quinoa salads. She forgot the taste of smoke and stone. But one monsoonal evening, alone in her sterile apartment, she caught a cold so deep that her bones ached. Store-bought soup tasted like warm water. Her throat was a desert. Her daughter, Meena, hated it