Kaveri Ponappa

Kaveri Ponnapa is an author and widely published independent writer on food, wine and heritage, based in Bengaluru She graduated with a Master’s Degree in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. In 2013, Kaveri published the The Vanishing Kodavas (Eminence Designs), an extensive cultural study of the Kodava people. The book details the story of the Kodava people in their own voices supported by a parallel, rich, visual narrative, and is an invaluable documentation of a very small community under great pressure to maintain their identity in a rapidly changing world. Since its publication, the book has inspired many young Kodavas to explore aspects of their culture and heritage. Readers have observed that the book: “tells of the feeling of generations; the understanding and ability to put (this) into words, (is) often the hardest part of writing.”

A Place Apart: Poems from Kodagu (Aarya Tara Enterprises), a translation and transliteration of Kodava poems was published in 2022. In the same year, Kaveri received the Gaurava Puraskara from the Karnataka Kodava Sahitya Academy for her extensive research and documentation of Kodava history and culture.

In 2012, Kaveri began writing The Coorg Table ® (https://kaveriponnapa.com/category/the-coorg-table/), her blog on the cuisine of Coorg, based on continuing research and conversations. Through her blog, she reaches out to readers, chefs and home cooks across the world, encouraging them to explore the cuisine of this small but distinctive culture. “It was while researching my book, The Vanishing Kodavas that I had first-hand experience of seeing how a cuisine is born out of a particular landscape, culture and history. Coming together over food was the easiest way to communicate with people,” says Kaveri. I began to see the food I had loved to eat and cook in its most intimate and familiar settings, and the way it grew out a particular place, its social and cultural context.”

Most recently, Kaveri has been a contributing writer to the Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Cuisine (Bloomsbury Academic 2023), where she has written on Kodava Cuisine and a number of other entries.

For more about Kaveri’s books, please click on the below mentioned links:

The Vanishing Kodavas – https://www.thevanishingkodavas.com/vanishing_kodavas

A Place Apart – Poems from Kodagu – https://www.coorg.com/online-shop/books/a-place-apart-poems-from-kodagu/