Her grandchildren motivated Tarla to pen her new book on cooking—a play and learn activity book for two-year-olds.
Tarla Dalal’s grandchildren have inspired her to dish out a cook and learn activity book for pre-schoolers
MUMBAI: The 12 th floor flat of the Dalal home at Mahalaxmi is in disarray. Barney stares at you from a pile of Noddy books while Barbie dolls sit among other Fisher Price toys. This clutter is the handiwork of five-year old Anya and her sister Aria, who breaks into a smile every time a nursery rhyme track that is playing, changes its tune. “Look, aren’t they adorable?” asks their grandmother and super chef Tarla Dalal. You also get to hear of her other grand daughters—Tarini and Mitali, who live in Pune. Her grandchildren motivated Tarla to pen her new book on cooking—a play and learn activity book for two-year-olds. It’s some change from her devising recipes for pregnant women, diabetics and the diet-conscious. “Yes,” she laughs, “But you know two-year-olds are a tough lot too. They can learn so fast and this is the best age to teach them.”
This time Tarla also exchanged notes with daughter-in-law Mona, who has had the experience of working in a nursery and developed a curriculum for pre-schoolers.
“Things have changed. In my day and age we had a different idea of what children should eat. We believed ‘ek saal ke baad hi anar dene ka’, but children nowadays are given pomegranate at three months,” Tarla says.
From shelling peas, to sieving dough and sorting big and small potatoes, each activity in the book is matched with an easy recipe. “It was such fun getting these together with Ma,” says Mona.” “So were the tasting sessions at home,” joins in Tarla. “The children and their friends loved it all, especially the recipe with Mango cubes, which are lollies on an ice-cream stick with yoghurt and oats.”
In times when everyone is talking about creating multi-channel operations; Tarla has actually been doing the same for years. Writing her first book in 1974, starting her website, doing charity cooking shows and penning close to 20 cookbooks—all these achievements have won her the Padmashri last year. “Well, the website and magazine is Sanjay’s idea,” she smiles pointing to her younger son. “As for me, I think God has been kind. Nalin (her late husband) always told me how important it is to give back what you have learnt.”
Much of that learning comes from a collection of a 1000 books that Tarla possesses, some of them that date back to over 50 years. “One is not born with knowledge. Learning is a constant process. I love reading when I can,” she ends.
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