Finding gold among cabbages

This is going to be a very short review as I am at a loss for words.

It is given to a fortunate few in this world, and particularly in the world of letters, to discover one treasure in one lifetime. And yet many thousands of Sri Lankan newspaper readers were able to acquire a treasure at an incredibly low cost, through the purchase of Cabbages and Things, Vol. 1, published in March 2001.

And now, eleven years later, the second, sister volume is an unexpected second treasure.

The first volume was a collection of 200 columns published over 12 years, from 1986 to 1997, in the delightful Sri Lankan magazine, Lanka Woman. Readers kept pleading with Mrs Therese Motha to publish the articles in book form.

I have known Mrs Motha, and the rest of the Motha family, for nearly 60 years. She is a shy retiring lady, whom you might call a reluctant journalist. It took a lot of coaxing to pull these two books from her, but thank goodness it was finally done.

When the first one appeared it defied definition. Therese herself observed, in the preface, “This is not a book of recipes. Rather, it is a little bit of everything. Facts on health, nutrition, origins of food, household hints, quotations, all this of course, as an added bonus, interspersed with over 200 recipes…”

The two volumes comprise a mini encyclopedia, and will take their place by the bedside, or kitchen shelf of many a lover of books. Indeed I see its future, in two volumes, as a giant literary work, in its genre of course, casting their roots among the hearts of readers, ‘grappling them to its heart with hoops of steel’. And how did these columns come to be? Over some 25 years, Therese Motha has been a sensitive reader, listener, observer, experimenter and eager participant in the daily drama of life. She has noted much of this down for the benefit of those around her, not just stashing it away for herself and her family.

The first volume had a more complete and therefore more helpful index. The first volume had an inspirational line at the bottom, and separated from the last line of the text. In the second volume it is incorporated. In both instances I preferred the earlier format.

But these are peccadilloes. Grab both volumes if you can. They really are worth the money, to have and to hold. I really have not seen any comparable books within four covers. Open any page at random and you’ll find gold.

The book is available at Vijitha Yapa Publications at Rs. 750.