Let us reflect for a moment on the dying art that is ‘the cooking of the roti’(chapati).

Go back thirty years and a woman who could not cook roti might as well have been taken off the market. Oh yes, he went there. Let’s be honest it was and still is a cattle market.

She could be a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon, but what are all these degrees and qualifications worth if she can’t make roti?

Women were desperate to cook the perfect chapati but the finished product was never really appreciated was it? It was torn into pieces and devoured by us men in an instant.

There is no disgusting sight in the world more than a fellow sat on his bed setee having woken from his two-hour Sunday nap to pick up a roti and then realise part of it was not cooked properly.

He then proceeds to pull ‘the face.’ You know ‘the face.’ The shame, the horror, the sheer embarrassment. How could she serve such a horrid roti?

There have been many days when we could have been a little more appreciative.

Like the time one legendary uncle ate 28 Pakistani size roti’s on a visit to someone’s house leading to pandemonium in the kitchen. Yes, he ate 28 rotis in one sitting and let me tell you now - the record still stands.

Then there is the case of the Pakistani man and his father who went to a Gujerati house for a rishta.

Thirty smaller rotis were placed in front of them and they ate the whole lot.

Only to be told later the rotis were for the whole family. The poor man did not get married and his father never returned to a Gujerati house.

Yet, how we yearn for the fresh roti. It is the only time the brother who got married from back home sniggers at his friend who decided to have a ‘love marriage.’ “At the roti shop again, eh?”

“Well, well well…freshie wife ain’t so bad now is she?”

But it’s all changing.

The skill was passed down from mother to daughter but once that chain is broken there is no getting it back.

As soon as the women realised you could buy four for a £1 from the local bakery the ‘cooking of the fresh roti at home’ was as good as finished.

The huge skills shortage has led many to believe that come 2032 there will be no more roti makers in the UK.

Then again we could cook roti ourselves couldn’t we?

Never….that would be an abomination, an obscene violation of human nature.

A man make fresh roti at home? Surely not.