Wheat producers are cheering the change. “Flour consumption has gone up by 20-30 per cent in the last five years. There is hardly a household that does not have a wheat-based meal each day,” says P.K. Ahammed, president of Kerala Roller Flour Mills. Agrees Pramod Kumar, president of the Roller Flour Mills Federation of India, “The consumption of wheat is definitely going up specially in urban areas in the south.”

On Mount Road in Chennai, you just have to stand in front of the Punjabi Dhaba to see people vote for naans and kababs with their feet. “When people here want to eat out, they head to restaurants that serve good north Indian fare,’’ grins 27-year-old owner Ranpreet Singh as he watches young and old swamp the food joint on a Sunday evening.

Fifteen years ago, Ranpreet’s father Inderpal Singh, 54, left Durg (now in Chattisgarh) to start a dhaba in Vellore and discovered the recipe for success. When he saw people in the districts devouring rotis and paneer, he moved to Chennai seven years ago and opened the restaurant. Now, 50 per cent of his clientele are local Tamils. Ranpreet has opened another restaurant in T. Nagar, the commercial hub of Chennai, which is also populated by the city’s Brahmins. “We don’t want to have thayir sadam (curd rice) all the time. We are now developing a taste for rotis,” agrees K. Chander, a Brahmin.

Sometimes, the taste for flour is driven by reasons of health. As in the rest of the country, waistlines are expanding and heart-rates pounding to the rhythm of 24X7 workplaces. “In many cases where south Indian families have replaced rice products with wheat, the move is forced by someone being diagnosed with diabetes or cholesterol. Diets are still largely a mix of rice and wheat,” says Sumitra Muthayya, assistant professor for nutrition at the Institute of Population Health and Research. In Koramangala, Bangalore, Srija Nair, a 33-year-old employee with an IT major, is packing chapatis and vegetables for her seven-year-old son Rahul. Ever since her father-in-law was diagnosed with diabetes, the family has stuck to rotis for dinner. The children, Rahul and his cousin Siddharth, have made the wheat switch faster. “They think it old fashioned to take rice to school,’’ says Srija.

... contd.