Malishwalas of Bombay

They appear usually at the brink of dusk and squeeze out the tensions and worries of the tired souls. They aren’t any Counselors or Angels but they are the Malishwalas of Bombay.You will usually find them seated on the banks of popular sea shores, whether its Chowpatty, Juhu beach and ofcourse Carter Road.Some of them will be walking around with a tray of oil boxes and chattais, and if they think you are a potential customer they will approach you and tell you about the various types of Malish that they can offer you. Obviously their main clientele is only men, however,women too have started taking some of their services, just like I got a foot massage from one of them at Carter road the other day.


The Malishwala connection

Malishwalas are people,who I had heard about all my life.Infact the Malishwalas of Chowpatty are also an integral part of my Birth story.

It was a dark winter night 21 Jan 1982 to be precise ,Pa was already tired and frustrated with the fact that I wasn’t coming out, He had made Ma,walk for more than an hour in the balcony of the hospital( I was to be born) facing the Queens Necklace,without any success. Having given up on getting any result that day, Pa walked down to the Ideal Corner restaurant, grabbed a beer and decided to unwind by getting his favourite Malish on the beach. As the masseur massaged his tired legs and head he starred at the stars and wondered in amazement how his first child would be.He wished it would be a girl,a girl who he could design exquisite dresses for, a girl who he could weave all his dreams into.Pa had always wanted his first child to be a daughter for some reason. At the end of that relaxing malish session,it was almost quarter past midnight and Pa thought it was a good idea to just drop by at the hospital before he went home just incase there was some development. Indeed Ma, had got her labour pains, and Pa was standing right next to her, the reluctant fool, I was I just wasn’t willing to come out, finally I did and when the doctor announced it was a girl, Pa just could not help but jump up in excitement,while my Nani (Mom`s Mother) who still subscribed to the old school thought in the 80`s, was quite grim with the addition of another granddaughter in her family.

Obviously, the Malishwalas had earned themselves a role in my birth story, but Pa, who himself was connoisseur of Champi Malish,ensured that I was introduced to the craft, as he would always Malish my head with oil.When I was younger I hated it, coz I hated putting oil in my hair, but when I was in college I liked it, it seemed so nice as it calmed my tired nerves, and then when I longed for it, my Malishwala, Pa was not there anymore and the magic of his champi fingers will remain only as beautiful memory in time


My Malishwala Encounter

One evening, after dinner me along with my friends were sitting at Carter road. My friends, who I suspect having some connection to the vampirish bahus of the sas bhi bahu soap operas who are always conspiring something against the other bahu, kept pestering me to get a malish done from one of the malishwalas walking across the promenade. With my tired feet, I was quite tempted, but part of me did not want to agree to the conspiring bahus and also a conservative part of me thought it wasn’t such a good idea to get your foot massaged in the middle of the road.

But finally my tired feet gave up, and we called one of the malishwalas. The foot massage was ok but what I really liked, is the vati malish, where they spread oil on the palm of your feet and rub the vati on it. It’s the most relaxing massage for 30 bucks. So next time you are on Carter road, and if you want to get your feet relaxed get the vati malish for 30 bucks. The Malishwala told me he was from Agra, and they usually sleep during the day and come here only in the evenings for their business.

Delhi Ki Diwali

The wide roads like welcoming hands, the striking monuments that stand as landmarks of our glorious past,the variety of scrumptious cuisines that innovate their style in the form of Delhi`s own cusine, the old city charm outlined with the fading ancient architecture,the chaotic Delhi traffic where everyone from the buswala, to the cycle rickshawdriver fight even for one inch of space on the road, to the completely lost and hostile attitude of delhiwalas( especially when u ask for directions).Delhi as a city has always fascinated me for the sheer character that it brings with it, giving me an opportunity to discover something new on every single trip I have made to Delhi. Here is memoir on my Delhi ki Diwali.

Since most of my family was going to be in Delhi for Diwali, I too joined the bandwagon and took the first train out what with the soaring air ticket prices. Getting a train ticket also needed some Jugad with the travel agent.

Public Transport in Gurgaon

If you do not have your transport in Gurgaon traveling around could be a problem.Local Public transportation in Gurgaon is restricted to cycle rickshaws,the motor rickshaw and some buses.
The Motor rickshaw is a 6 seater rickshaw, where usually more than 10 people pile up to take a ride for a nominal fare of Rs 5.Stuck without a driver, I too took a ride on one of these rickshaws, the rickshaw driver was so astonished, that he starred at me for a minute till he allowed me to sit in his rickshaw.

Street food in Gurgaon

I never realized that street food in Gurgaon would be so interesting.Neatly layed out in small laris as they call it parked outside all the big malls,the smell of kulchas, samosas, kachoris being fried, amidst the light evening winter breeze will definitely stir your appetite for quick grub. The street food stalls will offer you, Kulcha paratha, Chole bathuras, Samosa chat and variety of other chats, golgappas,Kachoris, Chowmein, Kathi rolls and Mumbai ka famous burger. I decided to dip my appetite with Mumbai ka famous burger.
I chatted with the stall owner, and asked him how he discovered this burger since living in Bombay all my life I haven’t ever seen it. He smiles shyly and tells me "Madam yeah to pata, nahi lekin yeah burger variety to Bombay saih hai na isliye nam de diya".
The burger is made of small potato patty a slice of potato which he deep fries in besan,. The burger bread is a small tiny bun, he puts the potato patty, onion and big piece of freshly cut panner er then just dips the bun in hot oil frying pan . For 5 bucks its good value for money but it has not connection with Bombay, the only Bombay connection that I could get is a friend of mine who would have loved this burger simply coz of the Paneer

Tentwalas of Haryana

We decided to bring in our New year by inviting cousins, aunts and uncles over for the typical Gujrati jammanvar at home. A jammanvar is usually a sit-down lunch, where long tables are layed out and food is served to you on the table. My aunt has a big dinning room, but in order to fit 35 people for a sit down lunch, we definitely needed to hire tables and chairs. So one lazy morning, myself and Mukesh the driver went around Gurgaon`s chaotic market Chakarpur to look for the tentwalas. As we walk towards the tentwala shop, I have this wonderful imagery of meeting some interesting tentwala like Dubeyji from Monsoon wedding.
On our first stop we are greeted by a hostile owner who seems least interested in renting out his chairs or tables. After asking him about 3 times the guy says,
"Bhej denge, address likh do".I enquire about the kind of chairs, and table cloth he would send us. After much coaxing he replies and says we have white only, nothing else. I tell him we need some colorful table cloths and bows for the chairs. I finally give up on this guy, and tell Mukesh we should look for someone else since this fellow is list bothered. The second tentwala we visit, has his shop with his house, and I guess we wake him from his slumber when we knock the door. Even before we enquire further, he says he is on holiday till Diwali, so he will not be doing any business. Have you ever heard of a tentwala who decides to sleep during peak business season. I hope my friend, who runs a decorators business in Mumbai, doesn’t get inspired by this lazy tentwala
Mukesh tells me that this small time businessmen in Gurgaon are least interested in doing any business, they have already made crores of money by selling their land to the builders, they are involved in this business merely for time pass so customer service, business growth are concepts alien to them. Since we cant find anything in Chakarpur, we go further to Sikanderpur market, where after passing through some dingy shops we reach a very dirty looking shop called Shagun Tentawala. The people in the shop are busy watching a movie over a tilted TV placed on a tilted shelf. Finally we get the owners attention out from the movie, juggling between 2 phone calls, with the least interes, the guy takes my order. Obviously 8am in the morning is something the tentwala has never heard in his life, so I tell him to send me the chairs and tables the previous night itself and I hope that the dude delivers the chairs and tables on time.

Killer Blue line Bus

After visiting my cousins at Vasant Kunj, I decided to go to Chandni Chowk Via 605 blueline bus from Vasant Kunj. The bus was surprisingly empty and compared to our BEST buses; it was quite dirty and dimly lit, more like our bad ST buses. It was only six in the evening, but with winter set in it has already become dark. As the bus moved ahead I realized I was the only women sitting in that bus and all the men traveling by it were the typical worker class. The conversations in the background were spiced with gallis, and I hoped to learn some new, but they were using the same old ones. A part of me was a little scared, but the other part of me said that even if I was traveling by a rickshaw, I would have been equally safe or unsafe, and the bus was definitely a better option with more people. A very casually dressed mavali sort of dude dressed in jhatak tracks and t-shirts came towards me to sell the bus ticket. I had always imagined bus conductors to be dressed in uniforms,but blue line conductors don’t seem to have a dress code. Couple of stops later, the bus is over crowded; luckily I am sitting right in the front so I don’t have to worry about getting off. The striking feature of the Blue Line Bus ride, is that anyone can sell bus tickets on the bus. Another fellow who was sitting in front of me, suddenly got up, chatted with the mavali in track pants, took the bundle of tickets from him and started selling the tickets.The bus journey futher is quite entertaining, with a fighting couple in tamil, an arguing old man, although I am itching to get off this bus. So I get off at the Central Secretiat Metro station to board to my train to Chandni Chowk

Metros of Delhi

The Metro rail is probably one of the best things to have happened to Delhi, making traveling so easy. I have used the Metro rail earlier also, but they have never been too crowded, coz a lot of people are still reluctant to use it.Surprisingly this time I saw a lot more people using the metros, than I had before. Also the good part is that the Delhi Metro`s have been able to maintain the cleanliness levels in the trains and the stations which is definitely worth applauding.

Chandni Chowk

Chandni Chowk has always fascinated me, and no trip to Delhi is complete for me without a visit to Chandni Chowk. I love the energy and character this place has. Chandni Chowk or that road which leads to Red fort is one of the most diverse streets I have seen. It has a Gurudwara, a Church, a Mosque and even a famous temple. Its choti diwali and the atmosphere in the evening is celebratory, cars parked outside filling up their boots with last minute Diwali shopping. Cycle rickshaws ferrying people, the lights, smell of pure ghee, and jalebis and samosas being fried.I walk through one of my favourite lanes the kinaari bazaar where you can pick up fancy laces, lovely material, artifacts etc. I love walking through these tiny lanes, which are so alive and lit up with the small kandils and decorations across. After making my stop at Paratha gali, I find myself buying some really fancy gifting bags and decorative pots, and gifting cloth. This place will definitely give your Tresories and Bombay stores a run for their money, both in terms of pricing and variety

Gujarati cuisine in Delhi

Some years ago, when my cousins from the north came down to Bombay they would love to eat the khandivs, patras and dhoklas, coz they could never buy them from the local mart and making it at home would be a huge production for their mothers. So when I heard we were having the jamanavar at home, I never realized that we would only have Gujarati food. A shop called Farsan in gurgaon caters to gujrati cusine, they churned out some really good khandvis, dhoklas and undhiya for us .Well every place brings in its own flavour to the cusine, so I could say that the khandvis and Dhoklas were more or less at power with the Bombay shops, but the undhiya was slightly different, less oily and not typically sweet like the gujrati undhiyu, so I quite liked it. So next time you want to eat guju food in Delhi head to Farsan