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Salt and Saffron Kamila Shamsie, London: Bloomsbury, 2000, 244 pages
Kamila Shamsie's Salt and Saffron touches upon the issues of female emancipation, love, class-divide, womanhood and its relationship to myth and how 'woman' creates a balance out of tradition and modernity. It is an ambitious work, projecting the self-conscious, candid and introspective voice of the narrator-protagonist, Aliya. The story is built around Aliya, a young Pakistani girl, a student in her early 20s who returns from her university in the United States to Karachi for her summer vacations.
Aliya belongs to an aristocratic Pakistani family that has always lived with firm notions of class structure. Like all aristocratic families, its members are snobbish, and believe in pomp and show. They take pride in display of cuisine, which only they can provide. Masood, the family cook prepares and serves tempting food with the proper blend of 'salt' and 'saffron.' Aliya's return to her home brings back many memories from the past, especially, those of Mariam, her 'not-quite-twin.' From the day Mariam (daughter of Taimur, the man whom Aliya's dadi or paternal grandmother, Abida, once loved and is also her husband, Akhbar's brother) joined the family, Masood excelled in the delicacies he produced. Aliya and the whole family enjoyed Mariam and Masood's dishes (Chapter 8). In a sense, food becomes a metaphor for sexuality and desire, the urge to taste and touch the forbidden fruit. Mariam, however, follows her heart and elopes with Masood. This comes as a shock to 'Dard-e-Dil' (the name of the aristocratic clan) family members, and they cut off all connections with her. To them, family pride and lineage is more important than relations. Aliya, who was very much attached to Mariam, feels quite lonely after this. She decides to go back to her college in the US instead of staying with her family in Karachi. The expulsion of Mariam negatively impacted Aliya and this leads to her becoming distanced from her dadi (Abida) as well: "... Dadi walked in and called her a whore so I slapped Dadi because whoever Mariam might have married she was still Mariam and I would defend her against all those who couldn't see beyond their own class prejudices" however, "She's having sex with a servant....