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…..
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