Many readers may well be aware that the chapati is the staple diet for many members of the Asian community. It is either that or rice.

Sometimes you get both – we call those days weddings.

I am sad to say the art of chapati making is slowly dying out due to fewer and fewer women being able to cook them. Now, that might sound a bit sexist and indeed it is. It is brutally sexist. But hear me out.

Many people hail from the villages of South Asian continent and one of the most important skills bought over to this great nation was that of chapati making.

It was the women who fed the communities and I must say we men did take advantage of this. We were spoilt and now we are paying the price of our insouciant attitudes.

I recollect hearing of one man eating 28 chapatis, yes 28, in one sitting and causing panic in the kitchens. It is still a record in these parts.

We have been unfair I know…a woman could be a doctor, a scientist and brain surgeon but could she cook a perfectly round chapati?

Freshly made chapatis, once commonly served in every household are no longer something one can take for granted on a visit.

This is due to two reasons. Firstly, mothers tried their best and I guess failed to pass this skill down to their daughters and secondly, when you can buy four chapatis for a quid who needs to cook at home?

I am not saying in any way it is the man’s god given right to have chapati cooked for him.

Many people will go to the restaurant and the food will be cooked by a male chef. However, finding a man in the kitchen is still not something that is rare in just one community.

In my household we were fortunate to have a mother who kind of trained the lads to cook chapati. That I’m afraid was a rare instance as the chapati was essentially a female thing.

The women were tasked with cooking the chapati. It was the done thing back in the village and it is one tradition some of us will simply not let go.

But unless something drastic is done I can safely say there will be no fresh round chapatis cooked in this country within the next two decades.

Here’s an idea let’s ask the men to cook it instead? Would we? Could we? Why not?