This story is set in a nursing home in the Western suburbs of Sydney called Cinnamon Gardens.
Don’t be misled by the cosy title though – this isn’t an uplifting, funny story about a bunch of old ladies drinking cups of tea and reminiscing. In fact, there isn’t any chai in it at all. It’s certainly not a story that’s designed to make you feel warm and comfortable, as the cover and title imply.
Maya is the elderly owner of the nursing home, and a Hindu Tamil who married a Muslim academic. Together they bought a run-down colonial mansion which they slowly transformed into a successful nursing home where the residents, mostly Australians of South Asian origin, are treated with great care.
Maya’s adult daughter, Anji, is running the business now and dealing with a spate of racially motivated violence in the suburb, some of it targeted at her employees and residents.
While this pressure cooker situation builds in present day Australia, the story also moves to the Sri Lankan civil war when many of the Tamil Hindu temples and significant cultural sites were destroyed. As a result of this devastation, some characters will do anything to preserve the Tamil culture and keep their stories alive. As one character says, ‘The stories we tell are the temples we build. They must not be erased.’ That’s really what this book is about – the shared experiences of the Tamil diaspora around the world and the significance of stories to shape who we become.
– Katrina Roe, RRL
