A taste of Malayalee life in Anitha Devi Pillai’s debut short story collection

In her debut short-story collection, What The Tongue Remembers, Dr Anitha Devi Pillai brings the experiences of Singapore’s Malayalee community to a wider readership through stories centred on food, relationships, migration and belonging.

Dr Pillai, Assistant Dean at the National Institute of Education, is a fourth-generation Singaporean Malayalee who has spent two decades researching the community as an anthropological linguist. Her academic work includes the research monograph From Kerala to Singapore: Voices from the Singapore Malayalee Community, published in 2017.

The new collection comprises 11 stories spanning historical, contemporary and speculative fiction. Food serves as a recurring thread: characters cook for loved ones, exchange food as gifts and negotiate differing ideas of what constitutes authentic Kerala cuisine. Dr Pillai explained that food naturally became central to the stories because it is closely connected to affection, friendship and family relationships.

The book also includes recipes contributed by community members and research participants. Each recipe—ranging from chickpea and mango yoghurt curries to traditional Kerala sweets—is accompanied by the contributor’s memories of the dish. A glossary helps readers unfamiliar with the community enter its cultural world without reducing its richness.

Several stories draw inspiration from real experiences. An Unusual Arrangement, for example, was loosely inspired by Dr Pillai’s paternal grandmother, who chose to join her husband in Singapore despite the looming threat of war. Other stories explore strained relationships, accumulated acts of care and the uncertainties left by life’s silences.

Through the collection, Dr Pillai hopes to broaden conversations about Singapore’s minority and migrant communities. She presents belonging not as a choice between places, but as an “in-between” state in which people may feel connected to multiple homes.

Published by Penguin Random House Southeast Asia, What The Tongue Remembers is available at major bookstores.

Read the whole story shared on The Straits Times here.