Life in a Marathi Wada in Pune

Life in a Marathi Wada was similar to the old wada systems in other parts of India where several families lived around a common courtyard called chowk. Typically, Marathi wadas had a long and narrow entrance behind a strong and decorated front door which eventually led to a courtyard open to sky and surrounded by houses. The courtyard contained a well and a washing place called houdh where clothes and utensils were washed. Children played in the courtyard and often women dried food grains in the sun. There was also a back door leading to the lane behind. The wadas were built when the Marathas were trying to liberate the land from the Sultans and Shahs (Muslim rulers) and so both wadas and gullies (narrow lanes) could be easily defended by one or two warriors and always had an escape route in the rear in case it was necessary to flee. The front door was decorated with brass cones and rings and a wooden latch on the inside. It also had a window like door within the larger door to allow limited access and one had to go in head first. The staircases were built between thick walls and were quite dark and had high steps. In some wadas, they went straight to the second/third floor and came down on the other side into the courtyard. The thick walls made of bricks and mud, kept the rooms cool.   

This is a sketch of life in one such wada in Pune in the nineteen seventies. The wada belonged to a Marathi Brahmin and must have been built over a hundred years ago. The house owner was an old man in his seventies and used to wear a black coat, white dhoti   and a black Gandhi topi, clearly marking him out as a notable person of a bygone era. His younger brother was a ticket checker in the railways and so wore a black coat. His two sons were working as clerks in local offices.

Once a much larger wada, it was partitioned by a giant brick wall of about a metre thickness and two stories tall. The various rooms were rented to families and bachelors. The front of the wada had two grocery shops which were run by Marwaris (people from Marwar in Rajasthan who are born with the talent to run grocery shops). In those days, they sold thousands of items by remembering where they are located in the shop, what is their rate etc. Periodically they used to make the traditional kanda-lasoon (Onion-garlic) chutney popular in Marathi cuisine.  Once when I was very small (may be 3 years old), I went to their shop to buy some candies. Grains had spilled on the floor and a huge male goat was busy eating them. Since I was excited to get my candies, I ignored the goat and he found me obstructing his meal. With one big shove he threw me out of the shop and the shop keeper had to come running to my help. As I grew up, one day my mother asked me to buy soonth (dried ginger) for four annas (25 paise). Just to make fun of the shop keeper, I went and asked for four annas worth of oonth (camel). Confused, he told me that he will take me to his home town in the desert where I can see the magnificent animal but for four annas I might be lucky if I got permission to touch him once. I in turn teased him for missing out on such important merchandise which any Marwadi shop should have.

The rooms on the two sides of the long entrance were rather dark but were very cool. One side was occupied by a poor family with several children. The husband used to work at the goods-shed where railway bogies were loaded and unloaded with goods. They had two sons and two daughters.  The elder son had artistic talents and started honing his skills by painting and later got into the business of making Ganesh idols.

In the first floor, was a non-brahmin family and they had an elder son followed by three daughters. The son had to find alternate places to get some peace from his younger sisters and often studied at the nearby Maruti Temple. The temple priest also lived in a corner of the wada and we used to buy coconuts from him during Puja time. He had the nasty habit of bending the coins with his fingers and troubling me by saying that the coins which I gave him were fake. So one day I told him that his coconuts were also fake since they could be brocken.  

Another bachelor was Dubba Babu so named because he was living in a tin shed. He used to pack roasted ground nuts in small plastic bags using a candle to seal them and sell them in a cinema theatre. On the first floor lived two Lingayat families. One had an aged mother, a younger sister and one son and three daughters. He was working as a clerk in the regional metrological department office popularly known as Simla Office because it was shited from the famous hill station called Shimla. The other had aged parents, a son and two daughters. He had completed a diploma in Law and was working as an apprentice with a local lawyer. His wife was always crushing groundnuts in an iron vessel for garnishing their vegetable curry. The son was a troublesome guy and often got into problems even with adults.

My father was a South Indian Brahmin and being the most educated person in the wada was popularly known as babuji. We were the only family to have several servants. We had a cook called Shaila-chi-ai which means mother of Shaila. We had a dhobi visiting us once a week and used to carry away a huge bundle of clothes which were washed and ironed and returned during the weekend. We also had a milkman who delivered glass milk bottles every day in the morning and had an impeccable record of never being absent for over 30 years. Our tailor was a Gujarathi man and had his shop about a kilometer away from our wada. The maids for washing vessels were often changing.

As children, we had a wonderful time in the wada as there was always someone or the other available for playing. Apart from board games, we played a variety of games such as hide and seek (there being many nooks and corners to hide), Shira-puri, lingorcha (seven stones), hold a colour and of course badminton and cricket.  A strip of tin with a slot was pushed over a spiral rod to make it spin and took off from the rod and went flying ahead and the competition was to put it as far as possible. All the festivals were celebrated with zeal and ensured the unity of the people. Of course there used to be fights among children but they would get resolved over time. Some of the festivals were Mangala Gouri Pooja where idols of the goddess wrapped in saris were installed in someones house and the other ladies were invited to come and worship, Ganesh Chaturthi, Padwa, Sankranthi (till-gul ghya gode gode bola = take sesame-jaggery and talk sweet),  diwali, Rangapanchami (like holi) etc. Some of the usual visitors to our wada were the Nandiwalas who used to bring decorated bulls for fortune telling, the black bear, nagwallas (snake-owners) during Nag Panchami and the Bhandiwali (vessal-woman) who used to collect old clothes and give vessels in return.  Being on the main road of the city, a host of processions and announcements used to be of entertainment such as the arrival of the circus announced through loud-speakers and leaflets, elections, marriage processions, Shivaji’s birthday procession, Sikh processions, muharram and of course Ganesh visarjan (immersions). Once I completed my schooling, we bought a house on the outskirts of the city and the wada life came to an end in 1980.

wada children