The joy of Jow mittai

Amidst the burgeoning festival crowd on the Chithirai Streets, a group of children surround Ramaiah thatha. It's not difficult to spot his frail old figure in the sea of humanity. He carries a characteristic bamboo stick atop which an unkempt and cheap looking plastic doll is perched sporting a pair of dusty sunglasses. P Ramaiah, 70, pulls a string from inside the hollow bamboo stick and the doll on top claps its contorted hands tied with brass cymbals. Then he calls out in dragging voice 'joww mittaaai', transporting any onlooker to a bygone era.

A child enjoying jow mittai   | Photo Credit: A. Shrikumar

A few decades ago, jow mittai sellers were a common sight during summer vacation. Adults recall the sharp sugary taste and the bright pink colour of the mittai. Childhood until late 80's in the region was incomplete without the joy of eating the chewy jow mittai, which has now become a rarity restricted only to temple festivals and village melas.

In Madurai, it's only during the Chithirai festival and the Teppam Thiruvizha, that one gets to see the jow mittai sellers. Ramaiah for instance comes from Usilampatti, to make some business in the 10-day festival. He sells around two kilos of the mittai every day and earns about Rs.400 to Rs.500. “The preparation is simple,” he says. “The mittai is made of plain sugar boiled in water with glucose or lemon extract until it coagulates into a gelatin-like substance. It is then poured on a tray smeared with oil and let to cool off. A dash of pink food colour is added to attract children.” Once it solidifies into an elastic gooey mass, the candy is wound around the bamboo stick and Ramaiah starts off for business.

Ramaiah, an old man selling jow mittai at Chithirai Festival, Madurai   | Photo Credit: A. Shrikumar

Ramaiah whose father and grandfather also were jow mittai sellers, walks around 10 kilometres daily during the season. “There was a time, when we sold for few Paise and made just about ₹10 in an entire day. It involves a lot of hard work and the returns are little. Also, after the arrival of foreign candies and expensive toffees, no one relishes the humble jow mittai anymore,” he rues and adds, There must be hardly five people left doing this traditional business in entire Madurai district.”

Apart from the colour and taste, an attractive feature of the jow mittai is that it comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. The sticky mass can be rolled and pressed into miniature two-dimensional models of birds, animals, aeroplanes, robots, watches and necklaces. It hardly takes a couple of seconds for Ramaiah to make the mittai into shapes the kids want. The watch is the cheapest at ₹5 and a complicated design like a helicopter or an elephant comes for ₹12 or ₹15.

An old man selling jow mittai at Chithirai Festival, Madurai   | Photo Credit: A. Shrikumar

Another variant of the jow mittai is hard and solid, cut into small cubes of pink, yellow and deep brown. Sold in cane baskets with a typical kerosene lamp, by road-side vendors during the Chithirai festival, the colourful mittais are made at a cottage-unit in Sappani Koil Street, South Gate, Madurai. “The yellow is cardamom flavoured and the deep brown is jaggery-and-ginger flavoured while for the pink onesartificial colour is added,” says M Nagarajan, who supplies it to two dozen vendors in the city. “This is the only time when we make and sell jow mittai at ₹One a piece.”