Mannu and sattu

On a citizen's summertime career

- Mayank Austen Soofi

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.