KARACHI: The machine vibrates and hums as Mohammad Rafiq pours grain down its squarish funnel. And at the other end his young assistant collects the flour, which comes out, to be transferred into a big drum from where it is sold to the customers. We are at a chakki, well, atta chakki to be exact, as there are other kinds as well such as masala chakki that grind spices.

“Chakki atta is popular among the health conscious,” says Rafiq. “It is brownish, though called laal atta, because it contains all of the wheat grain — the flour, semolina, bran, etc. Factory flour is far more refined, separating the other stuff from the flour to sell as other products such as maida or white flour, sooji or semolina as you know it and bran, which is also choker or the outer coat of the wheat grain,” he explains further. “Most people do not like chakki flour.”

The machine also grinds maize or corn into corn flour. Asked if the same grinding machines that produce chakki flour are also used for grinding spices, Rafiq shakes his head and says: “No, spices are ground on a similar machine but not the same as it has a wider funnel.”

Wheat grain being poured down a chakki.

The difference between the flour grinding machines and spice grinding machines doesn’t just end there. The grinding stones inside have different surfaces, too.

In one of the back lanes of Burnes Road are the other grinding machines that grind spices. The aroma of the spices pulls you towards the shops and if you stay there for long, it will also become the cause of your sneezing attack! “But our noses have become accustomed to these aromas so we are immune,” laughs Adnan Ahmed, one of the shopkeepers there.

Seeing red — whole, slightly ground and powdered red chillies.

Barrels, jars and packets of various spices line the outside of the shops as the shopkeeper informs us that almost 80 per cent people come here to buy spices. The jars in front of him have ungrounded, crushed or ground chilli powder, one has mixed spices, which the shopkeeper says is for making pickles, another has garam masala. “We have all types,” he says. “The various masala company boxes you find in stores and supermarkets cater only to a small portion of customers. We sell in bulk mostly that you find in barrels in other stores and self-service warehouses, but we also sell in small quantities as per our customers’ needs, and offer our grinding services to them as well in case they want their own spices,” he says.

Freshly-ground whole grain wheat flour.

Just then a boy brings some red chillies to the grinders. He wants to watch as they grind them into powder. “Son, you’ll have to wait a little,” says Arjun Chauhan, another shopkeeper. “We are grinding garam masala at the moment,” he points out to the boy, who says it’s all right.

“We do grind for others but if we are doing something else and they want another thing, they’ll have to wait till we get to that particular spice so that the grinding wheel doesn’t get coated by one spice while we are in the middle of grinding another,” he explains.

When asked if they had the old rotary grinders made of stone, which could be worked with the hand, the fellow smiles and says: “Those were used in my grandmother’s time, or maybe in prisons to make the prisoners earn their keep, but not anymore. Now we have them powered by electricity. Still in homes you have the sil and batta and langaree that also do the job.”

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2015

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