Them galli girls

Lohana Niwas at the end of Girgaums Shankar Bari Lane houses 300 homes In the 1960s almost every house in the eight buildings labelled A to H had a woman heading a small to mediumsize food business The enterprise ranged from rolling out as many as 5000 rotis a day to theplas dhoklas khandvi and even fullmeal tiffins for deliveryBut it was the papad that become famous after seven women from the group came together in 1959 and launched their business with a borrowed sum of R80 It provided employment to several women in the vicinity most of them from the Gujarati Lohana communityThe urad flour was mixed with asafoetida hing and salt and the dough handed out in batches to the women who took it home to roll out piles of papad The organisation was Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad Today the room where the story kicked off is a stocking centre while the group has flourished to employ 45000 women over 83 branches across 16 Indian statesWe walk down Gaiwadi ahead of Chira Bazaar asking for directions to Papad Galli A flower seller tells us Aiya kyay aj che it is somewhere here only while a paanwala points towards Guzdar Street We walk on passing shops that print wedding cardsRanjan Badiyani holds up a plate of her famous Chinese Jain samosaToday the number of homes that sell the snacks has dwindled to barely 20 but there continues to be a gentle unseen buzz typical of home kitchens in chawls or what the Gujaratis call chali The aroma of fresh theplas hangs in the air as does the fragrant fermented whiff of dhoklas accompanied by the sharp sting of rai tadkaWe climb three steps up into a corridor that resembles a ghost town A clothes line dangles close to the ceiling On either side every door is open We peep into dimly lit matchbox room that holds within it a kitchen living room and bedroomJyotsana Kesariya 50 is squatting on the floor in a redandyellow bandhini night gown Around her are large utensils carrying Gujarati favourites sev tameta nu shaak kobi bateta a pot of rice two stacks of rotis and theplas dal and a jar of gajarmarcha no sambharoWe knock asking for permission to talk She breaks into a smile Lunch time che pehla maru khavanu chakho Its lunch time first taste my food she says Above from the malyo makeshift mezzanine accessed by a ladder a wrinkled face stares at us We smile but he looks away He is my brotherinlaw Has been unwell for a while she says handing us a steel thali filled with items that she has shipped off in tiffins across the cityShankar Bari Lane popularly called Papad Galli in GirgaumThis has been Kesariyas preoccupation for 32 years more so after her husband passed away and she had to find a way to provide for her children My inlaws werent in favour of my working so I started by making 100 rotis a day That brought me R12 she remembers Her tiffins today go out to 15 clients at R120 each The delivery boys take R40 as share Apda par dukh ave to karvu pade when hard times falls upon us we have to stand up to it says Kesariya who hails from Gunagadh While her daughters are now married she continues to live here with her son and ailing brotherinlaw With the R23000 she earns every month her family manages to survive and saveHer day starts at 5 am with filling water washing the familys clothes and bathing She then performs a small ceremony to wake up Thakorji since she is a devotee of the Pushti Bhakti Marg Meal orders are wrapped up by 2 pm after which she spends metime scrolling through WhatsApp and FacebookAn archival images of women at work for Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat PapadA stones throw away is Ranjan Badiyanis home She sits on a modest swing chopping cabbage A stout lady with her hair in a bun she hobbles to the kitchen shifting her weight from one leg to another getting us a glass of water Her mood seems off Aje karigar nathi avyo the cook hasnt turned up she tells us She shows us a dabba filled with halffried square Chinese jain samosas I sell 1517 kilogram to stock at shops and for private orders daily she says parroting the ingredients cabbage bell peppers and a special sauceBehind the Shiv temple is where Ratna Lukka makes dhoklas When we meet her husband at his office at the mouth of the lane he says they make white and tirangi tricoloured sandwich khaman pizza damani cheese and even paneer dhokla We have been in the businessfor 17 yearsRatna Lukkas assorted dhokla plateIt is already midday by the time the residents are freed up for a chat A gentleman who has moved into the locality four months ago says To understand the labourintensive work that goes on here you should come in the morningsWe heed him and return the next day at 7 amBhavna Tushar Popat is a khandvi specialist Also called patuli in Marathi the khandvi is a rolled bitesized steamed snack of gram flour and yogurt PicsAshish RajeIn 15G room number 219 Aruna Panchmatyas kitchen is a party in full swing A man has finished kneading the dough for about 3000 rotis and is stationed by the stove to pass on rotis to a female staffer who places them on the stove to fluff A woman sitting beside her has the sole responsibility of dabbing on some ghee on each On the floor Aruna ben along with a helper makes small roundels of the dough and works the rolling pin She keeps a count and after every 100 rotis she makes a note in a bookHer mind travels back when she says I used to make alad na papad khichiya papad puri thepla and dry snacks like chevdo chakri and even samosa It used to be a competition to bag the maximum orders Almost every household ran a business For one rupee we could lose a customer We couldnt take a single day off Aa area ni ronak hati tyare those were the heydays Now about 15 homes of the 300 run a food business Some of the elders have passed on and families have moved outLike Kesariya her day begins at 4 am to fill water clean the house and be ready to start rolling by 6 am And she goes on till 1030 am without a break After that my day is free I am too tired to do anything else The evenings are reserved for next days prepBhavna Tushar Popat is a khandvi specialist Her supple fingers move in a skilled manner as she takes a knife and chops the line of steamed besan dumplings into equal pieces My motherinlaw Jayaben and my husband started this business 30 years ago I used to work in the administration department of a biomedical engineering set up Once fax and paper work was computerised I had to leave says Popat who readily offers us her recipe She follows a one is to three proportion of besan flour and chaas or buttermilkAruna Panchmatyas team of two makes 3000 chapatis a dayTurmeric salt and coriander peas and coconut mix for stuffed khandvis They turn out like pista rolls We also make a farali fasting version with singoda atta water chestnut flour she smiles throwing a look at her husband Tushar This family hails from near Veraval in SaurashtraIn the kitchen Popat points to a big pan By mistake we added double water in the batter Errors are human We have to restart from scratch Tushar says the chawl holds stories of courage and independence displayed by women who took on the responsibility of earning a living when the men couldnt provide When my father met loss in his business my mother started making rotis and thepla I used to go out and do the deliveries he recalls Today Popats son helps out in the kitchen before heading to college Popat takes the tray to the kitchen adds rai no vaghar mustard tadka gently giving the steel platter a shake to mix it evenlyAt 8 am notes of the manjira and conch shell drift out of Annapurna Tiffin Room in Room Number 4 of 15C of Lohana Niwas Workers are huddled inside the kitchen to knead the dough make roundels pass them to the person rolling the rotis and to the kitchen platform for roasting A staffer says This is the Kalkaji aarti that we listen to in Rajasthan We cannot begin without her goddesss blessingsOutside a team of three is filling up steel tiffins with measured rice sabzi roti and salad portions Chaitali Balsara started the service four years agoShe started the tiffin service at her husband Ashishs behest An electrical contractor his job took him all over Mumbai I was always struggling to find a nutritious meal while on the job I asked Chaitali to start a tiffin service but she was busy with raising our daughter I promised her that once she had five tiffin clients I would set up a team for her She would only have to oversee he says This was 2015 Today they cater to a dargah close by take party orders and feed 200 clients daily When we started my husband used to make the deliveries himself In 2016 we tied up with the dabbawalas Every morning when I walk into this area I feel inspired Everyone is working hard everyone seems dedicated On days when any of us falters or lags behind we know there will be neighbours who will chip in to helpChaitali Balsara and husband Ashish of Annapurna Tiffin Room cater to 200 clients dailCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news 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