Mama’s Roti

A powerful story about the life-giving force of roti--a round Indian flatbread--and where it comes from, the people who grow it, and what it symbolizes within two families, inspired by the farmers’ protests in India.

A roti isn’t just a roti. It’s a day in the hot sun tending to the wheat fields. It’s little grains of truth about where we come from. It’s a snack in the car for the perfect road trip lunch. It’s hundreds of hands over thousands of years, kneading together our story.

Told through alternating perspectives of a family in America and a family in India, this powerful cross-continental, intergenerational story proves that something as small as a grain of wheat can create a powerful sense of community.

Raakhee Mirchandani is an award-winning writer and editor. She is the author of My Diwali Light, Hair Twins, Super Satya Saves the Day, and She Persisted: Kalpana Chawla. When she isn’t writing, Raakhee is either organizing her bookshelves, running races to raise money for kids with cancer, or trying to roll a round roti, a skill she hasn’t perfected as her rotis are usually misshapen and angular. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with her husband and daughter. She invites you to follow her on Instagram @RaakstarWrites or visit her online at raakstarwrites.com.

Shreya Gupta is a book designer and the illustrator of She Sang for India by Suma Subramaniam. She is originally from India, but her passion for illustration brought her to the United States, where she pursued an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts. Her work has been featured as a ＂Google Doodle＂ logo, in the New York Times, in Asia Society magazine and other major publications. She also illustrated The Folio Society’s edition of Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri.She lives in New York, NY. She invites you to visit her online at shreyaillustrations.com.