Bala aahe ka?

Bala aahe ka?

When I was a kid in Bombay, I had my parents, Grandparents and my Great Grand Parents with me..! So we were 8 of us in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom flat in Prabhadevi, Mumbai! Looking back, I wonder how we all managed.

The nomenclature was unique. We called our Great grandparents Anna and Ammai. My grandparents were Thatha and Granny(cool name!). My parents were Appa and Mummy(because Ammai was already taken)

My Great grand mom and Granny gave us unconditional love like no one else can.

I can write a whole book on my Granny.

My Great Grandfather was that typical former civil servant, the  ‘propah’ British type, who drank Horlicks, insisted that we all read Shakespeare( never mind that I was less than 10 years old then) and was a hypochondriac! He was a sucker for all medicines and ointments released in the market. In fact, he must have been the only person to have ever used “Rubex”, which was a product launched to compete with Iodex and must have gone off the shelves within weeks!

Occasionally, he ventured out to buy fruits and used my services as a translator/negotiator. He would don his checked flannel shirt and muffler and set out ready to brave the Bombay winter! On one such visit he asked the vendor “Apple kitna?” thereby using up 20% of his Hindi vocabulary. The man replied that it was Ten rupees for a dozen. His immediate reaction was “This is daylight robbery! I won’t pay a naya paisa more than Twenty rupees!” The vendor and I spent the next ten minutes convincing him that he was actually getting it cheaper!

My Grandfather was the exact opposite. Totally laid back. He used to sit in the balcony all day in his easy chair, in that Bombay heat and humidity, and never once complained. He read anything given to him from Alistair Maclean to Agatha Christie to Hardy Boys! He loved playing cards and carrom with us. He was deaf, but we communicated using sign language. He even devised a method of telling the time by looking at the shadows which fell on the tiles of the balcony...something like a sundial!

He used to go for a walk every evening to Siddhivinayak temple.

He wasn’t keeping well so he missed that walk for a few days. Late one evening, I heard the doorbell ring. I opened the door to find 3 dabbawallas, complete in their Dhotis, Gandhi topis, the orange kumkum and butter tikkas on their foreheads, Kolhapuri chappals & thick moustaches.

One asked “Bala aahe ka?” For a moment I thought that they have got the wrong house, but then they saw that puzzled look on my face and explained that they are looking for an old man who used to come walking and hasn’t shown up for the past few days. They were concerned and came looking for him to see if he was ok! My Grand dad's name was Balakrishnan!

I later learnt that these dabbawallas used to play cards in the park next to the temple and Thatha joined them every evening!

What was interesting was that my Granddad was deaf and only spoke English and Tamil and they only spoke Marathi!

They came in and the conversation was fascinating!

Dabbawala : “Balasaheb, tumhi kashe aahat? Barpoor aaram kara”

Grand dad: “ Don’t worry, I will be fine. Just old age and the usual problems that come with it”

Dabbawala: “ho ho bhare”

We were just spectators in this bizarre reunion of old pals!

They all left with time, but lived simple, yet very fulfilling lives.

There was no space in the flat, but lots of space in their hearts.