It was a great disappointment. By the time January rolls around, as the festival of Makar Sankranti draws near, our kitchen at my grandmother’s house used to become frenzied. Everyone had only one thing in mind. “Til Gul Ghya, Ni God God Bola (टीळ गूल घ्या नी गोड-गोड बोला), loosely translated from Marathi as “Eat sesame seeds and jaggery, and speak and be good”, but appears in a laddo-making frenzy and Sesame and jaggery chikki.
The kitchen will be filled with the aroma of golden brown jaggery slowly cooking in iron pots, walnuts roasting side by side. Keep on stirring and wait till that perfect moment, when the jaggery has melted and caramelised, right when the roasted sesame seeds will mix in that melting sweetness of hot melted jaggery. Stirring quickly, stirring continuously and then rolling the hot small ladoos before the mixture dries and hardens. Your palms get burnt and burnt in the process, protected only by a little oil that helps make those laddus perfectly round, shiny and as hard as mini golf balls.
Another batch of molten jaggery and sesame seeds are poured into large steel plates, and rolled hastily by a rolling pin, rapidly spreading the sweet, sugary lava to form thin layers of til chikki . The process would then be repeated with roasted peanuts, chickpeas, cashews, or amaranth instead of sesame seeds.
By the time January 15 (Sankranti) arrives, huge boxes filled with til laddoos, til and peanut chikki, rajgira chikki, and kurmura/mamra or puffed rice chikki would be waiting to be eaten and distributed. Although different types of laddoos and chikki were made, but til laddoos were the most auspicious.
In Indian mythology, til, or sesame seed, is blessed by Yama (the god of death) and consumed as a symbol of immortality. In fact, sesame seeds are rich in minerals and vitamins, and are considered a superfood and have been a part of Indian tradition literally since the beginning of time.
The harvest festival of Sankranti in Maharashtra, which coincides with Pongal in the south and follows directly after winter, is celebrated across the country, though with different names. Like Maghi Bihu in Assam, Maghi Saji in Himachal Pradesh, Lohri in North India, Maghi Sangrand or Uttarayan in Jammu, Uttarayan in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, Ghughuti in Uttarakhand, Dahi Chura in Bihar and Songkran in Thailand.
In our Maharashtrian homes, Til ke Laddoos were not only relished, but also distributed to neighbors, visitors, friends and whoever came to the door that day.
Sankranti menu will also be special. Often the food was vegetarian, and bhogichi bhaji was cooked. Bhogichi Bhaji is a mixed vegetable curry using seasonal vegetables like broad beans (ghewada, flat beans, hyacinth beans), lima beans (pavta, surti papdi), snow peas (val papdi), drumstick, brinjal, fresh green gram and potatoes is done. The recipe has a mild sour and sweet flavor with complex flavors coming from peanuts, sesame seeds, jaggery, asafoetida and coriander. It’s like an undhiyu, and goes great with hot chapatti or puri, or gulchi poli – sweet bread stuffed with chopped jaggery and sesame seeds cooked in pure ghee.
But there is something in Sankranti and Khichdi. I’m sure there is a legend or story, but you mean counting trees, or eating mangoes. Urad Dal Khichdi with Kadhi is a staple on the day of Sankranti. Even when you go down south where this harvest season is celebrated as Pongal, you will notice similarities in ingredients and staples.
Ven Pongal – a delicious dish made of rice and moong dal – is made by cooking rice and moong dal, and then tempering with ghee, cumin and black pepper and served with sambar and chutney. Then there is kambu kuj, which is like a thin porridge made of millet, boiled with salt and turmeric, sour curd garnished with green chillies, ginger and cumin. It is a filling, nutritious drink. In sweets, there is the official Pongal – made of rice, moong dal, jaggery and milk. Of course, the most famous Pongal food is Pongal Payasam, a sweet pudding made from rice, jaggery and milk. Flavored with cardamom and garnished with cashews, raisins and dry fruits, it is the food of the gods.
When I think about our Indian festivals and the food associated with each one of them, I realize what a compulsive power food can be. And with food at the center of our lives, it reinforces my sense that we are all different, but we are all really one.
Kunal Vijaykar is a food writer based in Mumbai. He tweets @kunalvijayakar and can be followed on Instagram @kunalvijayakar. The name of his YouTube channel is Khaane Mein Kya Hai. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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