Double roti or Dabba roti?
Lo and behold! Desi Twitter has once again been divided. And this time around the argument under question is quite amusing. It’s over none other than bread. We’ve all been eating bread since our bachpan. In fact, it’s possibly the first food some mothers give to their babies by drenching it in milk because it is a soft food hence easy to digest. But who would’ve thought that the humble bread would divide Pakistani social media so aggressively.
It all started when someone claimed that the Urdu term for bread “double roti” is, in fact, “dabba roti“.
We’ve all been calling it double roti (or even dabbar roti, if you’re anything like me lol) but quite a few, I’d even go as far as to call it the majority, had never heard the term dabba roti. Btw, according to the guy who has triggered Pakistani social media, his logic has been that because a loaf, or slice, of bread looks like a box it makes sense to call it dabba roti.
How old were you when you realised it is Dabba roti not double roti.
— Akber Zeb Pirzada (@zeb_akber) March 1, 2020
Of course, that triggered Pakistanis who’ve never heard the trusty daily breakfast accompaniment to our jams and makhan be called dabba roti
Wait, wtf? https://t.co/JaFsllgqe6
— Mian Faisal (@mianfaisal56) March 2, 2020
WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?? 🙁😱 https://t.co/bIAW3x4hcQ
— عبیرہ 👩⚕️ (@slaymedical) March 2, 2020
And then, before we knew it, people came up with their theories to justify the authentication of calling bread double roti or dabba roti
It's called double roti because we saw the British making sandwiches using two slices of bread so yup. Not dabba roti. Fucking weirdos.
— shawarma lahme (@RizwanPehelwan) March 1, 2020
Armchair historians and online theorists began sharing their valuable knowledge about bread
It’s Double roti. Derived from Double toast and Margarine—the one meal of South Asian soldiers during the Great War and brought back as a habitual breakfast.
Dabba roti is just a symptom of deteriorating vernacular, as passed down a few generations. https://t.co/cc0gZfDeeI
— Dawar H. Butt (@theLahorewala) March 2, 2020
Some people were just shocked at the realization that it does make actual sense to call it dabba roti and not double roti
Omg my life was a lie…… dabba roti actually makes all the sense. All this time I thought it’s because it’s posing to be a roti but it’s not…. double game 😳😭😳
— Leena #AuratMarch2020 (@Leena_Ghani) March 1, 2020
Shit say what, it is “Dabba roti” … I thought it was “Double roti” haha my childhood was all wrong about it!
— Salman Khan سلمان خان सलमान खान 🏳️🌈 (@ImGreenGuru) March 1, 2020
What? Never knew that all my life.
— G_A_Asad (@G_A_Asad) March 1, 2020
Many, many people were just really uncomfortable at having to confront at the possibility of years of understanding and language being erased with one simple tweet
If you call it 'dabba roti' your parents probably had to be called up by the school to inform them of your "learning disabilities".
— Buffetkhor (@BilkulSahiKaha) March 2, 2020
who tf says dabba roti
— Shahmeer (@ShahmeerAK) March 2, 2020
You’re winding us up…there’s no such thing as dabba roti.
— Richard Harris (@HarrisRichard77) March 1, 2020
Then this super sleuth dug some cold hard facts to support calling it double roti
And well, what do you know, it ACTUALLY makes sense!
Zabardasti Dabba kehlo tou aapki marzi. As a food lover gourmet chef, blogger, writer, food critic for 6 yrs at South Asia magazine UK, participated in int'l food festival in Montreal, owned & cooked at a restaurant in front of ppl&was on French TV channel live cooking, my view👇 pic.twitter.com/hlYBnCVKtL
— JB (@badnocs) March 1, 2020
But the person who initiated this feud refused to give up
Sir, with due respect as someone who can read Portuguese. Pão read pano is a long shot to get to pav, but I’ll buy that. But how much more difficult is double? When the fact is half of the popular says dubber, and my grandparents from delhi always insisted it was a dabba.
— Akber Zeb Pirzada (@zeb_akber) March 1, 2020
Other refuted the claim by sharing that there’s no entry in the Urdu dictionary known as dabba roti
Fuck all of you giving credence to the "Dabba Roti" hoax.
Please to pick up one (1) Urdu dictionary and show me an entry for "Dabba Roti". It's 'double roti' in every single Urdu dictionary.— Muhibullah (@Mu7ibullah) March 2, 2020
Seriously though, these theories are gold.
Nothing whips up Pakistani intellectuals on social media than a random ass claim about the most random ass object done only to trigger people.
?? sksk dabba roti sounds cute but yeah i always love that the british saw rotis and were like ah flatbread and we saw their bread and were like ek? do roti? ah double roti https://t.co/CJ19xqLvBR
— bakwaas 😷 (@sukoonse) March 2, 2020
So the baker used to drop it off on a bicycle at the house in a dabba; hence, dabba roti. This would be in our grandparents’ time.
— Shakir Husain (@shakirhusain) March 2, 2020
Suffice to say, whatever the odds between, a paratha is all we really need in our lives
Dabba roti or double roti, both suck. Love yourself enough to make yourself a paratha….
— Al-Commie Karachi Kings laga ker wings 👐 (@AmnaRaoIsSad) March 2, 2020
Khair, I tried to find out what the correct term to, you know, “independently” verify this debate but have reached no concrete results. Apparently, this seems to be the first time this question has been put forth.
What do you think? Should we go with “double roti”, or do you think it’s “dabba roti”? Vote below to get your name registered in this important debate of a lifetime:
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Cover image via: istockphoto.com