Just Walking Around

Wafers….. Those salted crunchy crispies.

Is it just me or do you feel addicted to those crispy salty potato wafers once you bit into one . The next thing you know is you would have finished the bowl full and craving for more.And if you are directly eating from the plastic packet you will not know when its over as most often than not since your eyes would be glued to the television watching some movie or an interesting cricket or a soccer match. Your fingers will be fishing for even the small scraps of these salted wafers from the bottom of the pack. These potato wafers are hit with people of all ages be it kids or teens or us who are middle aged but young at heart.

I still remember the time we went to our best buddies birthday parties which would be organized at home unlike today’s generation don’t think twice before throwing a lavish party at the latest trending restaurant leaving you high and dry while paying the bill. At those small get together's where we friends would gather at the birthday boy’s home the menu was set it would be either be a Samosa or a bata wada with a sweet and minty Chutney sandwich along with those crispy potato wafers. If the party was a little grand you would have a bread roll or a pav bhaji and of course there would be a big piece of the birthday Cake –chocolaty and sweet. Every one would be happy just talking and enjoying some music on the in house music system or even a tape recorder. Some gossip , some discussion on the school portion , talks about the latest movies or the last cricket match watched. What a fun.

But till today the potato wafer remains the all time favorite accompaniment for any snack plate you offer to your visitors during any function be it small or big .

And do you know where these crunchie's and best bought it is at some small shops across Mumbai.

Inside the cottage-lined by-lanes of Khotachi Wadi in Girgaon, sits Venkatesh Subbiah's Ideal Wafers. Ask passersby for directions and they'll walk you right up to it. Or you can simply follow your nose.


It is 11am, and the pocket-sized cooking area at the back of the shop is already overrun with drums of freshly fried potato wafers. In still more vats filled with water are spud slices, waiting to be lowered into the giant frying pan. Every four minutes, a new batch fried in 60 litres of vanaspati is whisked out and added to the drum. In about an hour, the batch is cooled, packed, and placed on the shelves outside. At one corner of the shop his staff supervised by his  wife, Vaidehi, busily packs bagfuls of the salted wafers for the customers.

Looking at him going about his business a thought strikes my mind  "How does he manages to stand for so long in front of the pan, and that too for so many hours, every single day." After Subbiah has finally exited the kitchen, mopping his brow, he agrees that the wafer business can be rather demanding. "In fact, if someone asks for my advice, I'd tell them to not get into this business," he says laughingly. Ideal Wafers, is one of Mumbai's oldest family-run wafer businesses. The salted potato wafers and peppery banana chips have been drawing buyers from across the city for over five decades now. They are so light and tasty you would easily eat away the half kg pack all by yourself in one sitting.

Until about two decades ago, other family-run establishments like Gala Wafers, Coronation Wafers and Golden Wafers flourished in Mumbai. Today, real estate prices, labour shortage and bigger brands have forced many to down shutters. Ideal is among a handful of its kind still going strong, along with Janta in Malad, A1 Wafers in Dadar (E) and Grant Road, and Welcome Wafers in Mahim

The last two were set up by entrepreneurs, both inspired by wafer veteran, Coronation. While A1's customers include retailers, movie theatres, cafeterias and restaurants, Welcome Wafers has made inroads in Punjab and Gujarat too. It has come a long way from the 1970s, when founder Velji Gada made wafers by hand and sold them in the neighbourhood on bicycle. Today, the range has expanded to include varieties like tomato, cheese, banana chips, a newly launched "tangy" flavour called Golden Bites, and namkeen like chivda and masala salli. "Never say never," says Sameer Gada, Welcome's second-generation owner. According to him "You need to keep experimenting. The tomato flavour, took over a 100 tries before we got the perfect combination."

Inputs from regular customers and retailers are key. The Gujarati community often prefers a less spicy variety, while masala-packed wafers are popular up north, Gada adds. Supply also follows festival and school schedules. At Ideal Wafers, the production of plain potato wafers is cranked up during Shravan, while Gada's retailers ask for tangier, kiddie-favourite flavours when school holidays begin.

This  namkeen manufacturing is mostly unregulated, and family-run businesses face competition from both international brands as well as the unbranded, sasta wafers. Welcome Wafers countered this with corporate branding and good old-fashioned business smarts. They also have to watch out for new falvours from these international brands as the customer then look out fro a patrtcular taster or flavor in these local wafers too. The idea is to look at the bigger brands not as competition, but straight up opportunity. Formulae are closely guarded, and it is not unheard of for rivals to send a spy to copy the secret recipes.

But what can't be replicated, is the staff with decades of skill. Old-timers can slice a potato in half and know the starch content just by the crunch it makes, rater than the litmus test carried out by quality control persons.

We all know Lonavala is famous for its chikkis those sweet slabs of jiggery mixed with peanuts , cashew or til. But you also get the best variety of Potato wafers at Rupam Chikki. Their wafers and really thin , crispy and literally melts in your mouth when eat them. Fresh wafers are made every day and sold . such is the demand that the stock last fro few hours each morning and evening when they put on sale. Do try and pick a packet next time you in Lonavala to enjoy it cool and pleasant climate.

Yes you may put on some extra calories eating these addictive salted snacks but then what life without such small sinful namkeen's…

Just Walking Around

Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye……

With the just concluded Raksha Bandhan one of the very first festivals in the festive month of Shravan or Sawan and many more lined up throughout this month , we get eat a lot of sweets / mithai as part of traditional way to sweeten our mouth or as we say Muh Meetha To Karlo. In Western part of India there have been traditional sweets earmareked for such special festivals . Like the Maharashtrian Narli Vadi – made of coconut , sugar and fortified with Kesar and crushed  Pista. This delicacy is best bought from typical Maharashtrian Sweet MeatShops like Panshkar’s of Mumbai or Chital’e of Pune. This yellow square barfi type mithai is yummy and melts in your mouth with every bite. At Panshikar’s in Girgaon or Dadar , people queue from early morning to pick this wadi and going by the demand the line stretches nearly for 100 -200 mts in the bylane next to the Panshikar’s at Dadar in the heart of Mumbai. Panshikar’s have been in this sweets business from a century with the 4^th generation holding the fort now at their various shops across mostly the Marathi dominated areas of Mumbai , Thane and Kalyan.

Another sweet that is similarly associated with Raksha Bandhan od Teej festival as celebrated in the Northern parts of India is the Gewar from Rajasthan. The sweet itself is unique in its looks , a spindly disc shaped mithal with perforated layers and a hole in the centre all coming together to give your that mouth watering taste. It can be eaten in its regular form or served with chilled Rabdi making it more rich and heavenly.

One thing I have been doing over the last 13 years of my marriage is that  whenever I go outstation on my Sales trips I bring back the local sweet / mithai from that city or state so as to enjoy the sweet taste of Indi with my family. And the idea was given to me by my sweet heart Wifey Kashmira. Even if the schedule is tight during such Sales visit I make it a point to ask the locals be it the Hotel Front desk person  or the driver of the car hired for local use to point me in the direction of the best sweet shop in town to pick their local sweet. So when I am in Bangalore , I will make it a point to visit the nearest Nandini Sweet shop to pick the Mysore Pak . History has it Mysore pak was first prepared in the kitchens of the Mysore Palace during the regime of Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, by a palace cook named Kakasura Madappa. Madappa made a concoction of gram flour, ghee and sugar. When asked its name, Madappa had nothing in mind, simply called it the 'Mysuru pak'. Pak (or paka, more precisely) in Kannada means sweet. It is traditionally served in weddings and other festivals of southern India, and is very popular in baby showers as well. Paaka shastra (short paka) in Kannada means 'cooking procedure' or 'cooking techniques'. Also paka in Kannada refers to sticky sugar syrup obtained by simmering sugar with equal amount of water; specifically for Mysore Pak, the simple syrup is heated to the soft ball stage. The syrup is flavored with various spice essences like cardamom, rose, honey etc. Paka syrup preparation is a skilled art mastered by few cooks, some of whom keep their methods secret.

Same is the case when I am in Chennai. If it’s a day trip and I don’t find time to shop for any sweets I will surely pick up the Ghee wala Mysore Pak at Sri Krishna Sweets at the Chennai Airport. It's not unusual for passengers on flights out of Chennai to make a short stop at the airport counter of Sri Krishna Sweets

This store's 'Mysurpa' has developed a loyal legion of fans including me & my family and all those well beyond the Vindhyas. Most 'dessertarians' or sweet lovers find the melt-in-your-mouth texture of this sweet quite irresistible.

The texture of the traditional 'porous' Mysore Pak is meant to be slightly hard on the outside and yet 'crumbly' when you bite into it. A contrast from the soft and 'melty' texture that has been made popular by Shri Krishna Sweets. Another popular sweet shop in Chennai - Grand Sweets, veers towards the traditional Mysore Pak. These two styles have virtually split the Mysore Pak fans into two camps. It's not just the texture, some of Chennai's sweet shops have crafted their own versions from a Horlicks Mysore Pak to a Cashew Mysore Pak that traditionalists in Mysore might frown upon.

I have even picked up the best ever pedhas, those brown colored sweet round balls made of pure mava during my rail journeys to reach clients like IOCL  refinery in the holy place of from Mathura. They say if you are in Mathura and you have not visited Krishna Janma bhoomi and taste the Mathura’s famous pedh to Mathura ake kya kiya.

There are numerous sweet shops across Mathura who sell these Pede but the most famous ones are from Brijwasi Sweets and Radhika Sweets . the recipe of this sweet is really simple as its basic ingredients is cows or buffaloes milk heated with sugar for several hour to make it thick . In this process ghee is added frequently so that the milk does not burn and turns into khoya or mawa. The khoya is then fried by frequently adding ghee .Frying khoya makes these peda’s it last long.

Mathura peda is so famous in India that the term is often used in local saying like “Mathura ka peda aur Chhattisgarh ka kheda means "(famous are) the peda sweet of Mathura and hemlet in Chhattisgarh. Mathura acts as a brand name for peda sweet.

Another famous sweet quite close to my heart for its wonderful texture and taste is the Agra ka Petha. This sweet is a translucent soft candy from specifically from Agra in North India. Usually rectangular or cylindrical, it is made from the measly white gourd or the safed dhoodhi or ash gourd vegetable (also known as winter melon or white pumpkin, or simply petha in Hindi and Urdu). The Petha is said to have originated in the kitchens of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.Petha manufactured in Agra is covered by a Geographical Indication label to certify their origin. The best petha is found at Panchi Petha Store in Sadar Bazaar. The real house of the original petha , I had asked a local auto rickshaw driver on one such visit on which is the original one and he obliged me by saying “ Bhai agar alsi petha khana hai to Panchi Petha khana par Sardar Bazaar wala Panchi petha se hi lene , baki sab naki hai..” I asked him how do I know all other shops which are going by the same name of Panchi Petha are nakli . He wisphered to me in a conspiratory tone and said please check the sign boards of these other panchi Petha there will always be some addition , I looked to one which was right in friont of me it had the name Panch Petha written in Bold letter alright but just besides was written “ Pure” in thin black letters” same was the case with some other shops down the lane. I asked this autowala to takle me to Sadar bazaar. Again I checked the sign board it said “ Panch Petha" no prefix no suffix , home of the asli wala Petha.

The moment I entered the shop , I could understand the appeal petha hold for people. Rows and rows of inviting syrupy , perfectly arranged colorful chunks of the soft translucent sweet greeted me. A giant board inside proclaimed the nearl;y 20 varieties of this sweet. The counter staff offered me several variety from Angoori to Kesar to Rose flavoured. I was totally confused the understanding staff recommended I buy the traditional white and dry petha and the cylindrical Keshar one and for its mouth watering flacour the small round angoori ones. I was satisfied. When asked about its history the staff person pointed to the picture frame behind the cash counter of Late Seth Pancham Lal Goyal fondly called Panchhi. He started with one store and now this 100 year old business has around 7 branches in Agra alone. It has now started branches in Delhi , Ghaziabad and Lucknow. Keeping up with the changing demands and tastes of consumers ,Panchhi Petha aims to create newer types of pethas to keep the interest alive. Recently they have introduce a sugar free variety that allows even the diabetics to enjoy it too.

Most of us eat sweets as Prasad or an after dinner dessert but Kolkata must be the only place in India no no I guess the whole wide world , where you will find people scurrying across to the nearest sweet shop at any time of the day to eat sweet just like that. Be it in the morning as breakfast or after a heavy lunch or dinner as dessert. So when in Kolkata head to K C Das on Esplanade East .founded by Nobin Chandra Das . It was a humble beginning in a tiny obscure corner in Bagbazaar set up as a sweet shop in 1866. But he did not want to be known as any other Halwai or Mithai wala. The passion to create something new soothing unique was overpowering. He wanted to create a very original sweet which will be lovedf by the Bengali palate.An ultimate delicacy.After months of hardwork he came up with small balls of cottage cheese and boiled them in hot sugar syrup. The result was succulent , spongy, juicy sweet with a unique & distinct taste. Nobin Das christened them the “Rossogolla” and a legend was born. Eat it as syrupy sweet or squeeze the syrup out and bite into this melt in your mouth Rossogolla.But the story doesn’t end at Rossogolla ,enter their shop and your will be lost in the sweets they produce, be it the classic Bengali Sandesh or the Cham Cham or the peda like soft Khirkadam or the Malai Sandwich like Rossomadhuri Channar Toast or the Khirmohan. Even the aam dahi has been transformed by the Bengali into the heavenly Misthi Doi chilled and served in small kulhads. Eat away standing there at the shop or at the well placed chairs in the corner of the shop. Try each one and smack your lips and lick your fingers.

So every time I come back from one of my business trips , my kids eagerly await those mithai boxes filled with the heavenly sweets and we all enjoy tasting them after a good family dinner. And I would like to thank my wifey for this great habit she has instilled into me of picking up the best of sweets from every part of India.

So to end on a sweet note ,I would say lets discover India from its sweets  and forget the bitterness in our otherwise mundane life.

To Kuch Mitha Ho Jaye……

Just Walking Around

The Screamers down the society compound…                                                    Part 2

Has your sweet siesta on a Holiday been broken by the screaming sound of someone down below in your society compound trying to attract your attention by shouting out something like Juna Purana Saaman or Junaabo . You peer out of your French window or from your balcony and what do your see , but a man pushing his hand cart converted into a small carriage by nailing a few sheets of aluminum on three sides so as to make space for carrying the old and unwanted items he collects from different falt owners . In exchange he offer some paltry sum , but you are glad because it has reduced the clutter in your otherwise spic and span home. He has an art of bargaining with you and eyes of a hawk finding the finest cracks and chips to your wooden or ceramic / glass item bringing the price to few Rupees instead of a Hundred and give you an assurance that you got a good deal. He picks these odd item and carts them away . You will find him at the odd Wednesday or a Friday Bazaar selling those very things like a side table an old ceiling fan a couple of chairs or even a few ceramic showpieces all refurbished and ready to be picked up by those who love old and archaic items.

During my childhood days there used to be a lady who used to frequent our society carrying a cane basket filled with gleaming steel utensils. These she offered in exchange of old clothes from every house hold. She should  carefully sift through the pile of old clothes strewn in front of her making up her mind as what she can offer in exchange. If the clothes had a god Saree cotton or a nylon she would offer a Steel Katori  else you would have to satisfy yourself with a steel lid . If the pile had some good children’s clothes like a good frilly frock or an decent party ware shirt and pant she would magnanimously offer a copper plated small katori or an kadhai. And you would gladly part with your old clothes for a great deal. Just like the old wares merchant she would then take these old clothes and sell it for a princely sum to labourers and daily wage earners at the same weekly bazaars in working class areas of Lalbaug , Parel or even in old Fort area in Colaba.

Some street screamers had nothing to sell but rather offer there services for some money like that old man in a pure white dhoti and kurta topped up with a khadi jacket and head covered by a white topi. He would arrive on his cycle the typical one which a Milkman uses like a Hero or a Hercules and shout out “Kalaiyaaa-- Kalaiyaa”. He was the tin man who took your big Pital (Brass) utensils which would have turned green on the inside due to oxidation for a process known as “tinning”  to make them shining again. He had his loyal customers like my Aai who would trust him with her 3 big Tope’s or big cauldron handed down the ages from one lady of the house to the other in the family. The tin man would make a note of the utensils in his small dairy and take them away only to come back the following week with same utensils , now gleaming and polished ones which looked as if they were as new as on the day they were bought. Bringing  a warm smile on both his and my mother face.

Then there were the usual Raddiwala or the Phool wala , both coming mostly in the morning time one to collect you old papers and cart them away on his cycle . The other who brought small sapling of colourful flowers like hibiscus – red ,pink and white or marigold (gonda / genda phool) or the sweet smelling mogra or parijaat . Some standard plants like Tulsi or exotic like water lilies or some time on demand from particular customers saplings of jasmine , or boganvile . Some would ask him to bring medicinal plant like aloe vera or citronella or some romantic one would request for roses in red , white pink and and yellow. He would bring them neatly packed in his plastic crate held aloft his head or sometimes on some ones borrowed cycle. Just before the monsoons he would also bring special packets of soil med with cow dung to be put in pots for boosting the growth of the plants in his customers collection. The chant of “Phooloa”  breaking th morning routine , making the people with green thumbs peer out of their windows to check if any new plants were part of the Phoolwala’s collection.

Some odd ball vendors which have vanished due the consumer philosophy of use and throw were like the bucket repairing guys. There used to be a person who would come late in the afternoon with his hot coal sigdi and varied sizes of screw drivers shouting “Baldiaa” to attract his customers. If your plastic bucket started leaking due to a crack at the bottom or the side , he would examine the bucket under his magnifying glass or a watch repairs monocle and tell you where all he would have to put a patch to stop the leak. He would then get down to business, first he would light the small sigdi to heat the coals then he would keep his screw drives heating in them and start by cutting small plastic pieces of same colour as the bucket from his collection and then press them agains the crack in the bucket to fuse this piece with the main bucket to close out the leak. Once done he would ask for some water to test whether the leak was stopped. Smiling he would hand over the buket to the owner and demand his fees which would be as low as One rupee to maximum of Rs.10 if there were multiple leaks.

One of the bygone street vendors who still call on their loyal customers going from building to building are the knife and scissor sharpners of the Dharwala’s . With their big grinding wheel fixed to their bicycle. They mount the bicycle on the stand and start the business by shouting out “ Dharwala Dharwala --- Chaku Churyaan Tej karalo….” Come and get your knives sharpened. People who need their services send their maids down with all the knives that need sharpening and get them ground and sharpened on the big grinding wheel. For the next  few days you need to be extremely careful as the sharp knives could cut your fingers unknowingly as you tend to forget its renewed sharpeness.These guys still do brisk business but they too have fallen back to technology as most of the machine sharpened steel knives you get today cannot be sharpened as the old iron ones used to be .

So next when you hear a call from below you windows or the gallery and see a little commotion don’t get alarmed , it just might be one of these small time vendors trying to attract your attention with their trademark calls be it “ Juna bo ….Kaliayaaa …Dharwalaa”…and trying to etch out  an honest living using their god gifted skills …..

Just Walking Around

The Door Bell keeps ringing…..                                                                            Part 1

Living in Matunga all these years first in an old building , ground + 3 with no security guard and now in a high rise with security guard and inter-com( mostly non-working). I have seen all types of vendors , salesmen and seller of unique items coming in and going out of our building. Much habituated by constant ringing of the main door bell and having to get up to open the door every time it rings. More often than not getting annoyed at the thought of leaving the work at hand and rushing towards the door to check who has come.But some times looking at the familiar faces across the door just melts away your irritation.

I still remember the vegetable vendor we used to call him “Vasaiwale” since he used to come all the way from Vasai the far off suburb of Mumbai. He used to come every week either on a Tuesday or a Thursday when most house hold in our neighborhood used to buy and make vegetables .Typical was his avatar – a dark colored checkered full shirt but kept unbuttoned and a dark brown or Khaki half pant literally measuring up to his knees. He must have been the first person who had started the trend of what is now called Bermuda Shorts or Khaki’s. And which we were with aplomb at home on the weekends.

He used to bring the freshest veggies of the season in his Kawad. A unique contraption of two large cane baskets hanging from a long wooden pole held over his shoulders when he moved around the neighborhood. During monsoons he would bring green vegetables like fresh jadi methi or the spiky Shepu. Sometimes he would bring Kel-Phul of the Banana blossom and my Aai would make a sweet sour sabji of it which we ate with Tandlachi Bhakri. At other times his kawad would be brimming with fresh green leafy vegetables like Chavli , Lal Math or exotic by Indian standards and which you will never get in the local vegetable market , Aamchuka or the sweet sour green leafy vegetable made into a gravy based curry or the Shevgyacha Pala (leaves of the Shevgyachya shenga) which were made into a tikki type pattice by mom , served with garlic chutney or your regular taomato ketchup it tastes divine.

In the monsoons, they would bring fresh garlic chives, White onions ,the freshest organic cilantro, kantol or teasel gourd.In winter they carried held beans, ghevda – a cultivar of sweet beans, toor beans etc. They would also have those big light green lady’s finger, which Aai selected by breaking the tips to check if they were fibrous and mature. He would admonish her for doing it as she left  behind the fibrous ones. These light green bhendi delighted me as a kid as they were exclusively meant for stuffing with a delightful onion and coconut masala to make bharleli bhendi. The spiky brinjals were another opportunity to stuffing the masala to make bharleli waangi.

Vasai’s famous sweet yellow-skinned bananas were always picked for naivedya and shikaran – a cardamom spiced milk and banana dish that Maharashtrian children love. At times, we would order dried bananas too, a signature variety of Vasai. Dried bananas are eaten as a power-packed snack just like other dried fruits.

Old Mumbaikars like me miss them grossly. These vegetable sellers guided buyers about selecting the right Aalu (colocasia) leaves for Alu wadi those crispy disc shaped typical Maharashtrian starters  and how the rotund bottle gourds were prized for making dudhi halwa as they had more delicate and fleshy centre than the elongated bottle gourds that dominate the market now. Most buyers like us had special relations with these vendors as they satisfied their needs of exotic yet local vegetables. They were thus addressed as Vasaiwale mamas. Memories come flying back as I see him vend his wares in our neighbourhood still at the ripe old age of 60.

Other vendors who rung our door bell were the Nankhtai wala who came bi-weekly with his enormous steel trunk. The trunk was laden with his khazana . The trunk would open to reveal all the wonderful goodies neatly arranged in different compartments - square, oval and round shaped biscuits topped with almonds or cashews or pistachios or tutti-frutti, begging to be picked up.His specialty were the of Nanakhatai those sweet round or rectangular biscuits topped with almonds or pista and which melted in your mouth.Much before the cookies became famous these Nankhatis would be served to special guest when they arrived at tea time. He also used to bring in those fluffy & crispy Khari biscuits which were best companion for the afternoon tea. Then again he had choice of golden brown rusk or toast as we call them , in baby variety or the large ones in the size of a bread slice.

Another person most looked forward to by all our Gujarati neighbors and of whom we also got habituated was a fellow who travelled all the from the distant suburban part of Dombivili carrying his bag filled with what eles but “Khakras” . Khakras are those crispy and raosted chapatti type discs you can eat at any time to fill those in between lunch/ dinner hunger pangs. Since they are of the roasted type are much healthier option than snacking on wafers of the oil fried munchies. Ask him the options and he will roll out a menu of flavours that would spin your head. He had the Schezwan Kharkra (little spicy), Tangy Tomato Khakra , Chatpata Pani Puri flavoured Khakra , the Punjabi Masala for the spicy tongued person , or the Crisp Methi ones or Jeera flavoured Ghee wala Khara which were melt-in the mouth. This was apart from the sstandard plain slated Khakra . The sizes also varied as per each families requirement coming in large or minies. Most families would buy atleast 3 variesties as per their taste . We stick to one flavor either Methi or Punjabi Masala though and by the time these Khakras get over , the Khakra wala is back at the door for his bi-weekly sales call.

One more person who did the round of our building and the neighborhood much before this area turned into a Kutchi-Gujarati dominated region were the fishermen and fisher woman from the Wadala fish market. Now most of them don’t frequent the building in Matunga as they don’t find enough customers. But they do move about in Dadar Parsi Colony which is a stones throw away from our housing society. You will find typically the UP bhaiyya with their tin tubs laden with different varieties of fish going from house to house of their loyal clients. The lady of the house usually place their orders well in advance with the techno-savy fish sellers on their Mobile phones and they in turn arrive with the freshest catch at the doorstep. A little bargaining and the deal is done and the fish seller get down to business of cleaning and cutting of the freshest Pomfret or the Rawas or King Fish (Surmai) or the Macrel (Bangda). Even the prawns are de-shelled and cleaned and handed over ready to be fired or curried. Making the buyer smile with content of the impending fish curry lunch……

So though I hate getting up and opening the door literally a hundred times on an off day , for these special vendors who make a living by visiting home to home I would gladly open the door and interact with some real people than spend time on FB interacting with virtual people…

Salute to these natural sales people…..