The kitchens in Nagaland, where all of life happens

Physically it commands attention: it is often the largest room in the house, the entry point into the home. But it also weaves itself into the centre of the domestic lives of its dwellers. It’s the place where the cooking happens of course, but also the heart-to-hearts, the negotiations. The napping. “There’s even a television in there. All of life happens in the kitchen.”

The series features 10 kitchens from villages around Mokokchung in Nagaland, that remain undisclosed at the artist’s discretion. It was important to her to find kitchens that were nostalgic to her 90s, early 2000s childhood: kitchens with large exposed shelves and open hearths, before modernity found its way into the hills.

In the Quiet Corner of the Kitchen

Over tea and bakery snacks, Menty would explain the project to the people in the homes she wanted to feature. Because a Naga kitchen is too big to photograph in its entirety, she made a decision early on to focus on only one wall of a kitchen. While the action in the kitchen is around the fireplace, Menty turns her gaze towards the quieter corner that holds the stacked vessels, the fading photographs, the calendar, the proof of life. The most unself-conscious corner of a kitchen, and in many ways its most revealing. “Maybe there's someone sick in the family, you'll know by the medicines that they have kept, or by the utensils that are arranged. You’ll see what they got as a birthday or a wedding gift.” The resulting images are captivating, painterly and rich in detail.

Menty comes from a family of eight and spent much of her early years in the kitchen. As her dad cooked, she would sit by his side, watching and absorbing. As a result, she can cook ‘in theory.’ The recipes are childhood memories, deeply embedded, if a little hazy. At the end of these cooking sessions, they would eat together as a family, an important part of the Ao-Naga culture. “We always wait for one another and every meal is shared. Because we say, if a family doesn't eat together, they don’t agree on things.”

In Her Delhi Kitchen

This feeling snags at Menty in her home in Delhi. She enjoys living alone but eating meals by herself is something she struggles with. Yet, down in the valley, far away from the hills she grew up on, her meals are a daily conversation with the terroir of that land. A typical meal involves blanched greens that include varieties from Nagaland bought at the local Naga store, rice, a spoonful of the many condiments and pickles she carries back and a portion of meat. Nagaland grows over 200 indigenous varieties of rice, and Menty makes a point to bring back a few kilos of her favourite rice, akhi, a short-grained sticky rice. Just a handful mixed in with basmati rice suffices to infuse its heady aroma.