As if to illustrate their inbuilt skill, Roy points out a solar cooker that some of the women at Barefoot College helped design and build.

Urging these villagers to make roti in a solar cooker meets the same mix of rational and irrational resistance as telling an Italian that risotto tastes just fine if cooked in the microwave.

She says she wanted to make a solar cooker with materials that are easily available, even in remote villages.