Who wants to make chapatti?

When Abhay was in the dreadful phase of ‘terrible twos’, it was nearly impossible to cook a simple meal when no one was around to watch my meddlesome toddler! So one day while rolling chapattis, I hit upon an idea; I gave him some chapatti dough to play with and the rest is history! Abhay grew so fond of playing with the dough, that whether or not I had enough dough for the required number of chapattis for dinner, I had to have some dough saved for him; Whether or not I even had any plans of making chapattis for dinner, I had to have some dough for him to play with; As soon as he’d hear the sound of the rolling pin against the chapatti board, he would rush to the kitchen, not to eat the chapattis but to play with the dough! Initially, he was satisfied with a handful of dough and then as time went by, he grew greedier! He then staked claim to the rolling pin. He even accused me of being selfish and unwilling to share the rolling pin when I expect him to share his toys with his friends! So then we bought another rolling just for Abhay! As if that was not enough, thanks to today’s book, Abhay’s has gone a step further; He now wants the chapatti board all for himself and expects me to take turns with him while rolling chapattis! 

Anyway, today I read “What should I make” by Nandini Nayar and illustrated by Proiti Roy. This is a book that will strike a chord with any Indian mom who rolls chapattis! You can imagine my delight when we heard the American librarian read this book aloud while taking the trouble to pronounce the words “Chapatti” and “Tava” right at the library’s story time! Neeraj’s mom is making chapattis and hands him some dough to play with. Neeraj is seen wondering what to make from this dough – should he make a snake, a mouse,or a cat which grows bigger and bigger into a lion that opens its mouth, when Neeraj’s mom tells him to roll it back into a circle. Neeraj flattens this round shaped dough into bigger circle and further rolls the same into a big chapatti that his mom roasts on the tava. Neeraj then tastes his very first chapatti and he declares it to be the best he’s ever had! So after reading this book, guess who helped or should I say did anything but helped me make chapattis tonight?