Murugammal seems a trifle annoyed with us when we approach her for an interview. “I’m busy; come back later,” says the chickpea (kabuli chana) snack vendor, rather tersely, in her heavily-accented Malayalam as she whizzes about the place setting up her wares on her pushcart. While a huge steel platter piled high with chickpeas steams away on a bain-marie (a water bath that is heated by a stove hidden underneath the cart), an equally big platter of groundnuts coated with masala and another one with deep fried chickpeas, vie for space on the cart with plates brimming with onions, fresh cucumber, carrots, green mangoes, tomatoes, coriander leaves and the like.
Hot, boiled chickpeas mixed with sliced fresh vegetables and tossed with spices have, of late, become a hot-seller with denizens of the city, particularly on cool evenings. Chickpeas sellers are thus usually found in the evenings in or near popular hangouts and fairgrounds in the city.
It’s hardly been 10 minutes since she wheeled her cart into place in front of Kanakakunnu Palace and already customers are queuing up to buy the snacks.
“I’m running a bit late today. I’ve already had to send a few customers away because the chickpeas were not ready,” she explains as we stand back and observe the proceedings, all the while munching on excellent spicy groundnuts. In the little time it takes us to finish one packet of groundnuts, she’s already diced about half a kilo of onions and cucumbers and has also managed to wash a bucket full of de-husked corn and put it to steam. “I usually set up my cart in the evenings near the Museum police station. I get a lot of customers, many of them families, who have come to hang out at Kanakakunnu or in the Museum grounds. When there is some fair happening at Kanakakunnu or at Suryakanthi, I usually shift to the entrances or exits there,” says Murugammal.
The mother of two, formerly a flower vendor in Chalai market, has been selling steamed chickpeas for around two years now.
“My day starts at around 4 p.m. and often goes on till late at night, even 11 p.m., if there is some fair or the other happening,” she says. “I buy the chickpeas, nuts and fresh vegetables from Chalai on wholesale. I myself make the powdered spices that go into the snack,” says Murugammal, who hails from Valliyoor near Nagercoil. She and her husband, Arumugham, a karavakkaran , have been living in the city for over a decade now with their two boys, Madasami and Manickyam, 10 and 12, respectively.
“My husband and my children do help me out, especially during weekends and when there are melas. On good days I earn about Rs. 1,000 a day but my sales depend a lot on the fallacies of the weather. For example, during the height of summer very few people would want a hot snack. If it rains too much I have to shut shop even though there would be many people who want a hot snack…”
(A weekly column on the men and women who make Thiruvananthapuram what it is)
