Sattu Trilogy : The Pahelwaan Channa

Aditya Kumar
Sep 8, 2018 · 2 min read
Illustration by Michelle Khuu

Since, as far back as I can remember, I have loved the Pahelwan Channa, literally translating to the wrestler grams. Odd name for a legume, you say. But come on, who am I to judge, never seen a lady’s finger standing true to its annointed reference either.

Anyway roasted pahelwan channas, salted and garnished with a pinch of kaala namak and a few drops of lemon, was my favourite go to snack throughout childhood. The best part, it got ready in a flash; I mean if I gave it all, I could sprint to the bathroom, relieve myself, prepare my snack and run back savouring it even before the next ball was bowled.

Baabaji, my grandfather used to say that the love for channa is in my blood. Apparently Boodhababa, his father, a freelance wrestler in his heyday, adored chaanas too. Understandably Maa, my grandmother, tasked to feed her three children, including my frequently ailing father, Baabaji and Boodhababa on her husband’s meagre sum, had to device ways to cut in on Boodhababa’s improvident spendings on chaana.

And so it is said that one rainy morning, Maa ground the roasted channas on her wheel, adding finely chopped onions and fresh green chillis to it, stuffed the filling into parathas. That day, the Sattu ke Parathe were ravished by the kids. Maa too didn’t shy away from expressing her content and acknowledged from behind the ghunghat, rather excitedly that she too liked the parathas.

That was it. How could Boodhababa think of munching even a single chana, while the kids and Bachwaaba, his daughter in law, loved it ground to Sattu. So from that day, Boodhababa would go to the Chakki himself and get all of the pahelwan channa ground.

Since then, the Sattu ke Parathe have enjoyed unparalleled reverence in the family. Only a very few family members (mostly shunned outcasts) have had the audacity to challenge its dominace.

I was one of them.

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