The young man here is happily holding the child and also baking the chapaties on the little kerosene stove. Once Mumbiram shared this picture with Eleanor Zelliot who was one of the elder leaders of the American Institute of Indian Studies in Pune. Eleanor exclaimed “This never happens.” But of course it did happen. Eleanor got her doctorate with a dissertation on Dr. Ambedekar, the iconic leader of India’s untouchables. Yet she was unaware of such intimate moments in the lives of even the so-called ‘poor’ of India when they met an artist like Mumbiram.

As in many other of Mumbiram’s charcoal masterpieces we see the noble simplicity of Mumbiram’s lines. We see no other detail extraneous to the young couple’s act of making the chapaties together. Obviously Mumbiram himself had first hand experience of such moments.

This masterpiece brings out in wonderful ways the very essence of the love that a woman puts in her family and the beauty and magic of the togetherness of a couple.