Veranda Tales-Sattu is delicious

सत्तू मन भट्टू (Sattu mana bhattu)

Once upon a time two men from a village, Veeru and Jai embarked on a long journey. They didn’t own bullocks or bullock carts. They set out on foot with food for the road, a few clothes, and a stick to ward off wild animals. They would stop along the way by a river or stream at midday to eat and rest. They would continue their journey until sundown to rest for the night. The journey was several days long.

They stopped for lunch the first day. Veeru started on getting his meal ready, mixing Sattu he brought with him for the journey with water from the stream. Jai brought धान (dhan means rice stalks in Hindi) for the road. Jai wanted to know about Veeru’s lunch. Veeru said he was preparing सत्तू (sattu). Jai wanted to know what सत्तू (sattu) was. Veeru explained what सत्तू (sattu) was and how he prepared it by simply adding water to it.

सत्तू (Sattu) is a mixture of finely ground roasted chickpeas and a few spices. Sattu makes delicious protein-filled meals. It is easy to carry on a long journey. It doesn’t spoil and just adding water is enough. Veeru finished his meal and asked Jai about his meal. Jai said he wasn’t hungry and they resumed their journey.

Jai realized bringing dhan wasn't very smart on his part. Dhan requires a lot of work. First he had to dehusk it by beating it, he had to gather firewood, make fire and cook it before he could eat. He was jealous that Veeru was smart to bring sattu with him. He was desperate to get his hands on this delicious looking sattu.

They stopped for lunch the second day and Veeru was getting his lunch ready. Jai walked away, filled his stomach with water from the stream and came back within a couple minutes. Veeru did not have time to get water from the stream, mix his sattu in it and eat by then. Veeru was surprised that Jai came back so quickly from lunch. He asked Jai if he ate his meal. Jai responded:

This routine repeated for a few days. Veeru was hungry as he couldn’t eat his sattu. He couldn’t understand how Jai could get his rice ready to eat that quickly. After going hungry for a few days, Veeru decided to trade sattu for Jai’s dhan as they were resting for the night. Jai agreed after making Veeru beg for a while. They traded and Jai was nowhere to be seen when Veeru woke up the next morning, leaving Veeru high and dry with rice.

Veeru realized too late that Jai cheated him out of sattu by pretending to cook and eat rice quickly while going hungry himself and putting pressure on him to leave. Jai managed to scam Veeru out of his sattu. It was too late and Veeru was stuck with rice and without a traveling companion.

My spouse told me this story and taught me the poem. He heard it when he was growing up. His family would recite this poem as they prepared and ate sattu. This is an अवधी (Awadhi) or ब्रज भाषा (Braj Bhasha) poem, both dialects of Hindi, a North Indian language widely spoken in India. This poem carries a cautionary tale about people scamming others and how to keep ourselves safe from scammers. I now can’t help but recite the poem about sattu, feeling sorry for Veeru and getting mad at Jai as I enjoy a delicious bowl of sattu with cardamom and a generous amount of jaggery for breakfast.