Published Paper Details:

This paper examines the symbolic, affective, and therapeutic functions of food in Amulya Malladi's Serving Crazy with Curry, foregrounding culinary practice as a medium of emotional recovery and identity reconstruction within the diasporic experience. Situating the novel within the emerging discourse of food studies and feminist literary criticism, the study argues that cooking operates as an alternative language through which the protagonist, Devi, negotiates trauma, silence, and fractured selfhood following personal loss. The analysis demonstrates how food becomes a form of embodied expression, enabling Devi to articulate emotions that remain inaccessible through verbal communication. Furthermore, the kitchen traditionally conceptualised as a feminised domestic space is reconfigured as a site of agency, creativity, and relational repair, particularly in the context of the mother-daughter relationship. By tracing Devi's gradual return to speech, culinary creativity, and cultural belonging, the paper highlights the role of everyday food practices in mediating memory, healing, and self-reclamation. The study ultimately positions Malladi's narrative as a significant contribution to contemporary diasporic women's writing, expanding the critical possibilities of reading food as a transformative and restorative cultural practice.