Curry leaves have a ubiquitous presence in South Indian food. Curry leaves are used to season everything in the South Indian kitchen. After adding taste and nutrition to the meal, curry leaves are not eaten and left on the plate to become food waste. Curry leaves are used as a metaphor in Tamil to describe anything used for its essence and discarded without getting due credit. Having been disowned by my family, I am now only a proud Dravida Sisu — a child of the Dravidian civilisation.

I finally have the freedom to pursue the 16 kinds of wealth classified by Tamil society viz

Instead of settling into an arranged marriage, having children and tormenting them to get good grades, living a life concerned only with cooking and overfeeding my family, and obsessing on clothes, TV serials, property acquisitions, and my children’s arranged marriages.

Curry leaf diaries is my story told in the backdrop of deep-rooted social trends and the way ancient wisdom traditions play out in modern Indian society. அண்டத்தில் இருப்பதுதான் பிண்டம், as the macro is the micro, is a basic principle of Tamil philosophical thought I have taken as inspiration to tell my story and to not make it only about me. The following pages are an honest account of my life experiences and larger events as I perceived them in the process of forging a life that the innate intelligence in me called me to live.

As I narrate the breakdown of my family, I present the ancient wisdom from India that the source to redress the micro/ personal problems of modern life - rampant materialism, depression, disease, stress, addictions and brain fog etc and macro problems - a movement towards sustainable and earth friendly lifestyle all over the world, evolving healthy democracies worldwide et al lies in restoring the flow of love within families. This love can become the breeding ground for அறம் leading to a revitalising of individual, family and public life. With the hope that the love, support, and justice denied me in my own family will be made generously available to me from the Indian public, I present for your perusal the story of my life.

*1 I am inspired to identify myself as a Dravida Sisu solely from the example of Nataraja Guru, the second Guru of Narayana Guru Parampara, who calls himself a Dravida Sisu similar to the identification of French Philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau as “Citizen of Geneva”. I am not affiliated with any other political or social movements by this name.