How to make aloo bhorta? What's your recipe?

A hand shot up in the first row. The young university student gave his personal recipe for the spicy mashed potato concoction -- replete with mustard oil and fried dried chillies!

No, this was no cooking or catering class. This was a literary discussion on the debut novel, Appetite, by young author P Paromita. And the venue was Green University in the  beautiful Dhaka suburb of Purbachal. The institution's Department of English had organised the discussion for the faculty and students.

Kicking off the discussion, Associate Professor Dr Elham Hossain, lauded the author's use of food as a bridge to her Bangladeshi roots. Working as a chef in a restaurant in the US, the main character Zarina repeatedly would turn to desi ingredients to give a desi twist to her culinary creations. She exerted her Bangladeshi identity by repeatedly correcting persons who termed her as "Indian."

He also pointed out to the element of exploitation, a hangover of imperialism that lingered on -- her not being paid properly at her work place or for services rendered in promoting a star wrestler, the treatment meted out by a senior chef in the restaurant and so on.

He also pointed out how the author exposed the fickle world of fandom where fans were ready to almost give their lives for their idols, but were repaid with indifference and neglect. All these elements stripped away the illusions of civilisation in the western world.

Also speaking in the occasion was journalist Ayesha Kabir, head of Prothom Alo English Online. She said that P Paromita had opened up a new world for her through the book Appetite. As a new generation writer, P Paromita had presented the changed values of today's world, where the lines of class, gender, race and age were blurred. It is not that these discriminations didn't exist before, but the younger generation no longer viewed the world in the preconceived manner of their elders. A wrestler was a wrestler -- not a male wrestler or a female wrestler. The protagonist, ambitious young woman Zarina, had her eyes set on her goal of being a chef, not the stereotypical  "daktar-ingineer" as parents were wont to insist upon.

And food, aloo bhorta in particular, was a sort of metaphor, where chillies, onions and mustard oil, mashed up with boiled potatoes, seemed to describe Zarina's identity -- ambitions, desperations, dreams and angst that made her a whole and complete person. When she cooks shorshe ilish, it is not just an adaptation of Bangladeshi cuisine with western ingredients, it is her acceptance of both her roots and her adopted home in the US.

Joining the event were the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Dr M Shahidullah and the Chairman of the Department of English, Dr Md Shamim Mondol. They both appreciated that P Paramita was taking Bangladesh to the global literary sphere through her novel Appetite.

A lively interactive session with the students followed the presentations, where further details of the book and the author were discussed.