Delhiwale: Mannu and sattu

Mannu’s smile at once makes his face fluid. The features expand, the smile spreading to eyes and ears. The young man hails from the nearby district of Saharanpur, and has been a Delhi walla for some years. He identifies himself as a “dihari mazdoor,” a daily wage labourer. In fact, this afternoon, he is stationed close to a so-called “labour chowk” in Old Delhi where carpenters and painters squat every day by the intersection, waiting for assignments.

Mannu, too, is squatting by the street. But he has no paint brushes or carpentry tools. He has two metal buckets. One is partially filled with plain water. The other is wrapped in a wet red cloth, filled with sattu ghol, the drink of summertime galis.

Mannu stresses that he indeed is a labourer. Except during the heat-stricken months of April, May and June, when he parades along the Walled City alleys hawking the sattu drink.

Being roasted chana dal (or roasted jau) powder, sattu is a staple in many parts of the country. Believed to be very cooling, it is stuffed in parathas, downed with doodh, and even consumed with chawal. When mixed with water, it becomes sattu ka ghol. Some prefer the salty iteration, in which the drink is flavoured with lemon juice, salt, roasted cumin and crushed mint leaves. The Delhi pavements are commandeered by the sweeter version in which sattu and water is mixed with sugar—lots of sugar.

Mannu lives with his brothers in a one-room flat in Daryaganj. All the “bhai log” are labourers, but during the start of the summer, they temporarily switch the profession. These days, every morning, they get up to prepare the drink, mixing sattu with sugar and iced water.

After sitting idle for a few moments, Mannu finds a customer. Zeheruddin stops his battery rickshaw by the two buckets. Mannu takes out a plastic glass from a bag, lifts the red cloth from the top of the bucket, and ladles out the drink. It is looking exactly like cold coffee. The rickshaw man finishes it in a single gulp. He silently signals for one more glass.

Some streets away stands the Walled City’s oldest surviving sattu ghol stall. Attached like a limpet to the stony ramparts of Turkman Gate, Mahinder’s sattu ghol stall has been operating from this spot for more than 40 summers. In his 70s, Mahinder has freshly returned to Delhi from his wintertime hibernation in the UP village. He reopened his landmark stall for the new season just this Wednesday.

Standing up to pose for a portrait, Mannu says he is looking forward for the heatwaves to start in earnest. Then, he believes, more people would long for his sattu ghol.