The gol roti myth

Why more men need to hit the kitchen

Whenever I look at TV shows from the early days including some of my favourite cartoon, I see a very common pattern. The guy comes over from work and expects a hot dinner waiting for him at the table while the woman slaves over in the kitchen making something. I see it as a recurring thing on one of my childhood favourite cartoon “The Flintstones”.

It’s kind of a similar thing that men had expected here in India and its still pretty much the norm.

A friend I knew who was a CA with a successful family owned firm. He was very liberal about new ideas, except one. He was in love with this girl, another CA and doing a job in one of the Big 4’s. He wanted her to quit her job at the firm. She was pretty cool with it because what she thought was that naturally she can do so much in the family firm, but that was not the guy’s point. He wanted her to stop working and look after the house, the kitchen etc. Well I am not sure what happened after that, but I hope she dumped the moron.

Not just men, for some of us, our mothers might have a parameter that a girls worthiness of getting married is dependent on how round her roti comes out. Simply speaking a girl who can cook is the only one whom the society will consider as suitable for marriage and the rest will just either learn and hone their cooking skills or face the brunt of the society.

I could never get over this crappy idea, as to what is wrong if us guys learn a thing or two? I am one who has enjoyed his time in the kitchen, cutting vegetables or sauteing them or experimenting and trying to create something new. It’s not like the heavens would fall apart if the roles were switched. Women today are more liberal with their lives, yet their lives have only gotten more hectic. Working women have to take care of the kitchen duties as well as the office ones.

Maybe, just maybe, it would be good if the guy can learn a thing or two, except whipping up the maggi or using the microwave to heat packed dinners. Also, it would be helpful if you can stop using “gol roti” as a measure for a girls marriageability and start looking at how good you guys can cook your rajma chawal

#TVI