Chitra Banerjee's The Mistress of Spices is a diasporic tale constructed amidst a flood of voices, both male and female, sharing their joys and sorrows as immigrants in the United States. The author interweaves her text with strands of magical realism, postcolonial criticism, and feminine discourse to produce a patchwork of messages that overlap but never contradict each other. The novel tells the story of Tilo, a mistress of spices. She is a priestess who knows the secrets of all spices. Her journey has been etched to leave an indelible impression in the minds of the readers: In the opening scene, the story seems to be a normal story set in India, where the birth of a girl child is still considered a curse. People visit temples, offer prayers, perform rituals and beg for a male child. The HindusIt was an island occupied only by women and this immediately reminds us of tales linked to feminist utopia. An island populated only by women. The old woman held the girls' hands and looked. If the hands were soft and supple; if the spices placed on the palms sang their songs, the girls were accepted or they were thrown into the sea: the spices have strong colonial connotations and also symbolize the subversive power of the postcolonial era. When we look at the lanes and alleys of history, spices first seduced, enchanted and enslaved foreign travelers with their latent powers. Over time, these travelers became the rulers of the country. In this tale of dreams and desires, the spices are mastered by a woman, incidentally called Mistress, giving a distinct colonial master-slave flavor. As long as Tilo follows the rules of the game, the spices obey him silently. Once she transgresses, the equation changes