Gattu and his family visit a restaurant on his birthday, and he badgers them into letting him take on the Raavan Dosa Challenge. The restaurant serves a giant dosa (a crispy pancake made of lentils and/or rice) stuffed with a piping hot curry and served with various tangy chutneys. Patrons who finish it win a trophy and have their picture put up on the Raavan Dosa Wall of Fame. Gattu aspires to be the first under-18 contender to win.
Beating the challenge, however, isn’t as simple as finishing a gigantic meal. Named after Ravaan, the ten-headed demon king from Hindu mythology, this competition brings out the worst in Gattu. Each of Ravaan’s ten heads represents a negative emotion, and Gattu experiences them one by one throughout the book. On one page he gets angry with his family for trying to persuade him to order something else, on another he behaves selfishly by refusing to share, and further along he becomes jealous of another customer for winning the challenge a second time.
Everything about THE DEMON-DOSA DARE, from Gattu’s family to the Taj Mahal restaurant where most of the book’s action takes place, will be familiar to Desi families. Author Deven Jatkar’s hilarious prose and mouth-watering drawings combine to make each page a treat for the eyes, with the bright colors and kitschy décor that are hallmarks of Indian pop culture. He begins with a description of what a dosa is, the variations of the dish enjoyed across South India, and a quick look at Raavan and what his heads represent. The simple, relatable story of a boy trying to win a contest will make it easy for children to identify the moments in their own lives when bad feelings get the better of them, allowing caregivers to initiate a little soul-searching in between readings.
If only the author had thought to end his story with the same introspection. While there are some minor natural consequences for Gattu’s actions, there are no lessons learned—as the book does not show how to process the “demonic” emotions that its main character is embroiled in. After all, the ultimate purpose of mythology is to provide a roadmap for individual journeys through life. So, where there is a Ravaan, there ought to be a Lord Ram as well—symbolic or otherwise—to make things right.
Packed with yummy details and deliciously vivid illustrations, THE DEMON-DOSA DARE by Deven Jatkar is laugh-out-loud funny and provides a fascinating look into Indian cuisine and Hindu mythology while demonstrating the harm of negative emotions.
~Sakina Hassan for IndieReader