Excerpts from a Novella by Aditi Sowmyanarayan

Excerpts from the Novella

Gobble Thy Prejudice

Aditi Sowmyanarayan

In our previous post, ‘Talking with an Author’, Print.Able conversed with the award-winning writer, Aditi Sowmyanarayan.

More about her publications, awards, achievements, and thoughts on writing in that post.

Many aspects of the novella Gobble Thy Prejudice were discussed in the interview: grammar, knowledge of finance, the research necessary to write about different fields, food, and humour. 

Central to the last two, that is food and humour, is one of the characters in the book, Ramesh, and his enterprise Ranganayaki Caterers. 

Surely the curiosity of those of who have not read the book is piqued. What is about the relationship between the narrator and Ramesh and Ranganayaki Caterers that is so interesting?

To satisfy that curiosity, we are publishing, with permission of the author, two short excerpts from Gobble Thy Prejudice.

Excerpts from Gobble Thy Prejudice

Background: 

Son of parents who are both brilliant financial experts, Ramesh chooses to indulge his passion for cooking and runs a catering business, Ranganayaki Caterers, named for his maternal grandmother. Amongst other things, he caters South Indian meals to Kusum’s bank. Kusum is a financial expert herself, who dislikes cooking, viewing the kitchen as “an alter where women sacrifice their dreams”, but she also dislikes the fact that she has to eat the catered South Indian food at the office day after day.  Ramesh approaches Kusum’s bank for a loan to expand his business.  She does not know he is the son of her most valued clients – who have now invited her to be Managing Partner in their Company – and she shows a bit of unnecessary arrogance in dealing with him, all because his food lacks variety…

Excerpt I:

Kusum walked into her office to find the client’s documents on her table.  She decided to look through them and make sure that everything was in place before the meeting and lo and behold, the client was none other than the owner of Ranganayaki Caterers! “The food nazi!” Kusum exclaimed to herself and her mind started to concoct a perfect way to cause him some annoyance to make up for the fact that she was forced to eat the South Indian lunch served by his company every day! The fact that she was not going to be around for long fed her enthusiasm to pull off the mad caper scheme.

She decided to keep Ramesh waiting for at least an hour before she met him. She succeeded in making him wait an hour and a half before finally going to meet him. “Good morning, Ramesh! I’m glad you chose to bank with us,” said Kusum as she walked into Arun’s office. “I’m not glad I chose to bank here,” said Ramesh flatly. “A few minutes more and you could have wished me good afternoon!”

Excerpt II:

This takes place as Kusum goes to Ramesh’s work premises to make an assessment prior to approving the loan:

“You have a nice office here,” exclaimed Kusum.  “It is very different from what I was expecting it to be.” ‘Thank you!” replied Ramesh. “What were you expecting my office to be like?”  “Like how catering set ups usually are,” said Kusum. “Oh that,” said Ramesh, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “the front office is just to clear due diligence.  The kitchen, with its army of cockroaches, will not disappoint you!”

“I just paid a compliment and there is no need to get in a snit over it,” said Kusum.  “And I am just mentioning that the compliment may have come a bit too soon,” remarked Ramesh, tongue in cheek. 

Excerpted with permission from Gobble Thy Prejudice by Aditi Sowmyanarayan, Readomania, 2023.