Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Each spice has a special day to it. For turmeric it is the sunday, when light drips fat and butter-coloured into the bin to be soaked up glowing, when you pray to the nine planets for love and luck.
Turmeric which is also name halud, meaning yellow, colour of daybreak and conch-shell sound. Turmeric the preserver, keeping food safe in a land of head and hunger. Turmeric the auspicious spice, placed on the heads of new-borns for luck, spinkled over coconuts at pujas, rubbed into the borders of wedding saris.