Mazzoo Mazzoo
by Sandhya Rao and illustrated by Srividya Natarajan
“Mazzoo Mazzoo” by Sandhya Rao and illustrated by Srividya Natarajan. Published by Tulika and part of the under the banyan series. A warm and amusing folk tale from Kashmir.
Maqbool Butt and his wife Nazneen live with their children Firdaus and Fahima near Nagin lake in Srinagar. One night he returns home excitedly with a newspaper package in hand. Nazneen and the children are excited to know what the surprise is. Maqbool has got some fresh, large and round brinjals. Nazneen has been waiting for a long time to get these to make a traditional Kashmiri dish called marzwangan korma. They hadn’t eaten it in years and the children have never tried it before.
They are waiting for the next day’s dinner when they can taste the delicacy together. The children go to school in the morning and Maqbool leaves for work with the plan of returning early for dinner. Nazneen happily cooks the korma in the evening. But just when it is ready, some unexpected as well as unwanted guests arrive. Have they sniffed the korma? Will they leave before dinner time? Will the family get to eat the fragrant korma? Why is the story called Mazzoo Mazzoo? Enjoyed reading this with my six year old. The illustrations use traditional Kashmiri embroidery motifs. The elements of Kasida stitch have been used in all the frames. Apt for 5+ year olds.
Where to buy from?
You can buy the book from
the publisher Tulika books here.
An independent Indie bookstore, Funky Rainbow, that I buy a lot of my books from.
