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I am an average looking girl who has round and fluffy cheeks since childhood. I always had an inferiority complex because my brother was good looking and tall, but unlike me, he was not good at studies. My mother was always neutral when it came to sharing love, but my father definitely loved me over my brother; at least that’s what I felt. In my growing up years, I never helped my mother in any kind of household chores. If she asked for help, first came the tantrums and then my help. I don’t feel proud to say it but I was a brat. To top it my father used to always tell my mother to not bother me with any kind of work.
After 10th grade, I stepped out my cocoon and went to a bigger city for further education. Now was the time I was realising; that I don’t know anything except studies. It was a tough time for me to stay in a home away from my home. My grandma was proud of me because I was sincere at my studies and whatever I did. She was also aware of the fact that I hated doing housework. One day she interrupted me in my studies and said, “ I am happy you are taking a good education and will soon get a good job. You will earn a lot of money and have servants around to help you with everything. But there will be days in your life when you will want to eat something that you cook. So better learn to cook something, just enough to feed yourself when you are hungry.” I was startled, she was right but my disinterest in the kitchen continued and I did not learn to cook anything until a few days before I was to marry.
Someone from my husband’s family told me that to win my mother in law’s heart was to make round, fluffy and soft chapatis. Well, I was dumbstruck! I only loved eating food, not cooking it. I told my sister-in-law to teach me to make chapatis. But due to my long working hours, I could not finish the lessons and got married with half knowledge about cooking. The early days of the kitchen were nauseating to me. I hated everything in there, I wanted to scream and cry as I could not cook anything well. My family was eating world map shaped chapatis and not one chapati was the same! Soon I managed to make curries and vegetables and desserts that was liked by everyone but chapati was still not up to the mark. After months of practise and dedication, one evening my chapati was round and it fluffed like a puri on tawa and it was so soft that it melted in the mouth. As that chapati was rising on the tawa, I called out my mother-in-law, “Aai, fugli fugli” (Mother, see it’s all fluffed up). She said, “All these days, only I was fluffy now your chapati is also fluffy!” And we both laughed. My journey was not easy but now my family calls me chapati maker, I am so efficient at it now that I can keep making chapatis all day long. No, not really! Just kidding…
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I still can't make round chapatis 😅
Keep trying is the only mantra
I am willing to eat 😋
Next time you are here. Promise
I still can't make round chapati
You will learn with practise