Place: Mumbai
Date: xx/xx/2005
Namaskar Mandali,
Mee Mumbaikar. Dabbawallah. Bole toh, one of the people who are in the tiffin delivery business. We supply tiffins containing hot meals to thousands of hungry office-goers in the city of Mumbai every day.
Mee, bole toh Mumbai Dabbawallah Association ka president. Solid vat hai, boss! A typical day in the life of a Mumbai dabbawallah begins around 7.00 a.m., six days a week. After going from door to door and collecting te tiffins containing home-made food for delivery to various offices, we catch the 8:00 a.m. Dadar fast local train and read Churchgate in about an hour, deliver all the tiffins and return by the afternoon. Our boys cover all the areas in Mumbai.
One morning, all the newspapers excitedly brought out a headline on their front pages, which said that Britain's Yuvraj Charlekar (bole toh apun ka Prince Charles) was scheduled to arrive in Mumbai that day. All of us were very excited about Charlekar's visit to Mumbai after a long time. Why were we so thrilled? Charlekar, sitting in his plush chamber at the Buckingham Palace, had read a newspaper report on Mumbai's dabbawallahs and wanted to meet us during his stay in the city. He invited my colleague and me to his wedding. We gladly accepted the invitation to go to Britain as his personal guests. He promised us that he would personally look after us, and that we would be treated as though we are some Indian rajahs ourselves.
On the day of our departure to London, bole toh apun ka graduation ho gaya. From Mumbai ke local train ka second-class compartment to Yuvraj Charlekar ka private jet. The second part of this entry is about our experiences at Charlekar's second wedding.
Place: Buckingham Palace, Britain
Date: xx/xx/2005
Mee, bole toh Mumbai Dabbawallah Association ka president, writing this entry at the huge desk in the guest room of Charlekar's palace in the United Kingdom. Today is the wedding of Yuvraj Charlekar and his long-time mistress Kamlabai Parkar-Bole. Both are into their second m arriages. Charlekar was, if you recall, married to Princess Diana (whom he calls Princess Daayan), who is, sadly, no longer in our midst today, due to her death in a tragic accident. Actually it is a blessing in disguise, because poor Di would not have been able to bear the thought of her husband marrying an older and more hideous woman. They also have two sons, Billu and Hari (bole toh, William and Harry).
Kamlabai, on the other hand, also has two children form her previous marriage. They are now step-siblings to princes Billu and Hari. Anyway, the wedding went off quite well with just one small hitch: Britain's maharani, Queen Elizabeth, bole toh Charlekar ki maa, didn't show up at her son's wedding with Kamlabai, because she doesn't approve of "that other woman" as his bride, and by extension, the Queen of England.
We gifted the couple a steel dabba. We're poor people, so please don't expect us to present them a gold-plated one. We then returned to Mumbai by the same private jet that's owned by Charlekar.
All members of the Dabbawallah Association of Mumbai wish Yuvraj Charlekar and Kamlabai Parker-Bole a very long, happy and successful married life!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment