The Mistress of Spices

Tilo decides to leave her store for the first time to visit Geeta. To prepare for this unprecedented journey, Tilo uses ginger, a spice known for its energizing properties, to create a disguise, aware that she is breaking the rules. Ginger is associated with wisdom, but its pungency makes it hard for Tilo to swallow, and she associates this sensation with the transgression she is committing by leaving the store.

Tilo’s visit to Geeta’s office is fraught with anxiety and novelty. The outside world is starkly different from her spice shop. In a Sears department store, she is dazzled by the abundance around her and thinks for a moment that she is seeing “into the heart of America, into the heart, I hope, of my lonely American” (138). She buys clothes to wear to her meeting with Geeta and a mirror, though she does not yet know why she needs it. Her interactions with others, including a dismissive receptionist, highlight her outsider status. In her meeting with Geeta, Tilo provides comfort and support, listening to her troubles and giving her a bottle of pickled mango with fenugreek for healing, ginger for courage, and dried mango powder “for deciding right” (146).