The monsoons are a time when I feel a deep craving for my hometown in Karnataka. Lush green landscapes, the chocolate brown earth & cool afternoons where we, a bunch of cousins would clamber up and down the old staircases of our ancestral home. In the evenings as the grown-ups sipped their filter coffee, we kids were handed steel mugs of steaming ragi malt. To a city dweller, this humble drink seemed like a trophy to join in with the adults around the coffee table. Ragi malt was next only to God when it came to healthy food for babies.
When I became a mother and was looking for ideas for healthy foods for babies, I found all pieces of advice directing me to the humble ragi or nachni. In my heart, I did a happy dance, only if to know that my child would eat a food that I so relished in my childhood. Continue reading
