... So it is with complete confidence in my sources that I can report Ratna’s book is a wonderful read, as much cuisine as philosophy, and as happy a blending of East and West as one can find. Unlike Nehru, I cannot remain “non-aligned” on this tome; I back it whole-heartedly. Curry, Karma and Kama Sutra is a mix of different meals: cuisine, of course, but also Indian love legends, and philosophy. But these are all small dishes, spread out, with time to digest in between, and presented, as Ratna herself suggests in her many asides on the art of seduction, in the right playful atmosphere. As in a good curry dish, you will be enthralled by the ensemble of ingredients, not distracted by some glaring taste in a haphazard jumble of victuals. Thus, recipes you simply must not read while hungry (fair warning!) co-exist happily with references to Shakespeare, a précis of Indian cattle-farming in the 15th century, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and this nugget: the seductive power of Van Halen (yes, the guys with the big hair). The heart of the matter is the food of course. The food I know best is from France . The 19th century writer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, in his Physiologie du goût, put things thus: “A knowledge of gastronomy is necessary to all men, because it tends to increase the amount of pleasure destined to them.” I am sure Ratna would agree.