“Equal parts memoir, political commentary, and cookbook,… (KHABAAR) braids food and memory and loss into a single compelling strand.” – Rishi Reddi in LA Review of Books

Just in time for Diwali, India’s biggest and most important holiday of the year, we would be honored for you to join us for a Desi High Tea Adventure, with traditional Indian fare such as homemade masala chai, samosas with chutney, tandoori chicken masala in roti, kheer with berries, as chef and author Madhushree Ghosh shares the stories of chefs, home cooks, and food stall owners as well as her experiences as an immigrant in her cookbook memoir KHABAAR: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory, and Family.

Join us at Madshushree’s private home in San Diego for the next in our Inside the Author’s Studio series, where you will have the opportunity to meet the author up close and personal.

Your Adventure includes food, a beverage, tax, a copy of KHABAAR: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory, and Family to be delivered and signed at the event, the intimate, authentic Desi High Tea ceremony that includes a diya, or tea light, outdoor lighting ceremony for people to light and wish each other well as part of the Diwali celebration experience and the opportunity to engage with Madhushree live and in-person.

Due to the special nature of this event, only a limited number of spaces are available and event is expected to sell out.

Registration

To register for the in-person event, simply select the Event Registration (11-4-23) option below, and the address to Madhushree’s private residence will be provided 3 days prior to the event via email.

About the Author and Book

Madhushree Ghosh has written prolifically on how food—especially South Asian food—travels globally though immigration, migration and indenture. As the daughter of refugees and an immigrant to America, food stories inform her about the history of her people, how they traveled and what happened to them when they held onto recipes, let go or modified them over countries, continents and generations.

Her work has been a Notable Mention in Best American Essays in Food Writing, Pushcart nominated and published in The New York Times, Vogue India, Washington Post, LA Times, The Writer, Longreads, Catapult, BOMB, Guernica, LA Review of Books, LitHub and others. She is an invited workshop leader at conferences and workshops such as Grub Street Writers, Encinitas Writers Workshop, San Diego Memoir Writers’ Workshop and others.

Besides writing about food, recipes and history of food from South Asia, Madhushree works in oncology and infectious diseases’ diagnostics in San Diego where she is a sought-after speaker at major food and book festivals, women in science forums as well as global conversations on domestic partner violence in the South Asian immigrant communities in America.

Madhushree Ghosh’s debut food narrative memoir, KHABAAR: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory, and Family, was published in 2022 by the University of Iowa Press to great acclaim. KHABAAR focuses on chefs, home cooks, and food stall owners, and the author’s own immigrant journey as the daughter of refugees, questioning what it means to belong and what does “belonging” in a new place look like in the foods carried over from the old country.

About Diwali

Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights with its variations also celebrated in other Indian religions. It symbolizes the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.” Diwali is celebrated during the Hindu lunisolar months of Ashvin (according to the amanta tradition) and Kartika (between mid-October and mid-November). The celebrations generally last five or six days.

During the festival, the celebrants illuminate their homes, temples and workspaces with diyas (oil lamps), candles and lanterns. Hindus, in particular, have a ritual oil bath at dawn on each day of the festival. Diwali is also marked with fireworks and the decoration of floors with rangoli designs, and other parts of the house with jhalars. Food is a major focus with families partaking in feasts and sharing mithai. The festival is an annual homecoming and bonding period not only for families, but also for communities and associations, particularly those in urban areas, which will organize activities, events and gatherings.