The title of nectar in a sieve is an allusion to a famous painting an historical event another literary work someone the author knew

The title "Nectar in a Sieve" of the novel wrote by Kamala Markandaya was taken from a poem "Work without Hope" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, this poem is also quote in the epigraph of the novel, this sentence represent how a precious liquid can vanished if it is put in a strainer, the answer is another literary work.

The title of Nectar in a Sieve is an allusion to another literary work.

Explanation: Nectar in a Sieve is a novel written by Kamala Markandaya. The author took the title of the book from a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge called "Work Without Hope", which was published more than 100 years before Nectar in a Sieve. Markandaya also includes an excerpt from "Work Without Hope" in the epigraph of the novel. Therefore, it can be said that Markandaya was highly inspired by Coleridge's poem at the time of writing this novel.