There are two aspects of Chef that are likely to strike the Indian reader of this novel?the evocative recreation of Kashmir beyond the security parameters and how the ?wrong side? has concerns just like ours.
Canada-based Jaspreet Singh liberally uses metaphors to highlight everyday concerns that still pervade Kashmir?preparing food, keeping warm, lusting and caring?not very different despite the contested, tragic zone it has become in the past few years.
Kirpal Singh or Kip is returning to Kashmir after 14 years. Cancer-ridden, he has to prepare a final feast at the general?s daughter?s wedding. Years ago, Kip?s father was a high ranking soldier posted in Kashmir. Wishing to follow in his footsteps, but disallowed by medical reasons, he made a backdoor entry into the army? as a chef posted at the centre of the Indian side of the security operations?the house of the general, Ashwini Kumar, former GOC-in-C, Northern Command. As apprentice chef to chef Kishen, he had much to learn, and much he is still not privy to, such as the latter?s red diary. And deal with sudden disruptions?the transfer of chef Kishen to Siachen, the arrival of the ?enemy?, who has been swept up a river that respects no modern boundaries, crossing repeatedly between the two enemy nations.
Initially acting as her interpreter, Kip is soon speaking the only languages they share?of cuisines and caring. She suddenly disappears, and trying to make sense, Kip is soon forced to flee the valley he has so grown to love. Just 19, sexually inexperienced, politically na?ve, almost alone, his reactions to the horrors unfolding around him are the reactions that have almost disappeared from the discourse on writing from Kashmir.
Singh spent a considerable part of his childhood in Kashmir, and his love for the region comes through the attention to detail and nuances that are constant right across the novel. This is not his first writing on the region. It was preceded by a collection of short stories, Seventeen Tomatoes: Tales From Kashmir. This is a story on a larger scale, a tale of a devastated paradise that none know the escape routes from any more.
The use of metaphors is liberal. Just as the cuisine requires ?patience and skill?, the politico-military of the situation is anything but. The view from the kitchen is almost dispassionate on politics, but involved in matters of heart and home. Cuisine leads Kip to begin to introspect the truth about ?us? and ?them?, why ?we? may not tell the truth and the ?enemy? be more like us than we were told. The text is lyrical, interspersed with poetry, diary notes, and yes, one recipe?a rogan josh prepared as a mix of the Hindu and Muslims ways of preparation for the wedding. Rubiya, the general?s daughter, a poet giving voice to Kashmir, is marrying a Pakistani. The lingua franca of the states is under attack, albeit overtly in a very gentle manner. The tenor of the novel throughout is one of perplexity, of trying to match the propaganda with the action on ground. This is a view from one side of the LOC, the concerns of the book could easily have located it on either side.
Kashmir has few parallels as contested territory. And with comparatively scarce literature for decades, it is no surprise that the flood gates look to open as an increasing number of writers choose to look at the human cost of this protracted tragedy being played out in the scenic valleys.