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

Har ki Dun Trek 2018

June 2: Got picked up at Dehradun and went by road to Sankri. Being a week end there was heavy traffic at mussoori. The long drive and the breaks for lunch and snacks helped us to get to know the other team members. Reached Sankri late in the evening and after getting refreshed, had dinner at Rinki Bhojanalay. The dogs were very friendly to tourists.
 

June 3: After a briefing from Mr. Rajmohan, we had a quick breakfast and got into two vehicles along with other equipments like tents, sleeping bags and cooking utensils. After travelling barely more than a kilometer  in high sprits, we got a shock when we discovered that the road ahead had been washed away in a thunderstorm the previous night. Fortunately, a few vehicles were trapped on the Taluka side and there was no flowing water across the landslide. We were asked to haul our bags across while the organizers from Renok Adventures consisting of a guide, a cook and his assiatant hauled their equipment across and loaded it on one of the Taluka side vehicles.  Since two vehicles had to be combined into one, people had to sit on top and that is what we did !!
 

After covering the 10 km kutcha (unpaved) road trip, we reached Taluka by 11 AM. Loading the mules and carrying our backpacks, the trek formally started. We soon saw the Tons river. The path was well laid out but kept climbing high and dropping back to the river. We passed the beautiful village of Gangaad. The sun was strong and soon it became difficult to walk. We managed to walk up to 2 PM and had our packed lunch and drank water from the streams. We continued walking till 5 PM until we reached our camp site. It was a small plot of land next to the river and our tents had already been erected. We got tea at 5, soup at 6 and dinner at 7 PM. Since it became dark by 7:30 PM and everyone was tired after the long day and we went to sleep by 9 PM.

 

4 Jun Mon: Got up early by 5 AM as daylight came through the tent. It was slightly cold but went out for morning ablutions. Got tea at 6 AM and were asked to vacate the tent by 7. Had a quick breakfast of pasta and kheer with dry fruits and black tea. The trek started at 7:30 and two dogs named by me as choco and brownie came with us. Was expecting them to drop off after some distance but they came with us all the way to our destination covering a distance of about 14 km. After some distance we crossed the river over a bridge and continued on the left side. The climb became steeper as we had to gain the altitude. We crossed several streams some with precarious wooden bridges, other over slippery stones and continued till a small hut was reached. Here we had lunch. We continued on and on until we got tired of putting foot before foot. Dinesh was also getting breathless. Our guide Sagar kept urging us by saying ‘Chalo Chalo’ since he wanted us to reach the destination before rain came. Finally, we reached the camp site of Har ki Dun which was next to a river with grass plains studded with flowers and breathtaking views of Bandarpunch range including Kalanag and Swargarohini peaks 1,2 and 3 all of which were over 6000 m above MSL.

 

5 Jun Tue: Got up at 6 as we did not have to leave the tent and were going exploring the area. The peaks of Bunderpunch 1 and 2 and Kalanag were visible from inside the tent. The river water was laden with silt from the sedimentary rocks and had upset our stomachs. So I decided to skip breakfast and lunch and managed on a few nuts. We then left for a walk towards the Sankri range of mountains. After a steep climb, we descended into another valley with steep slopes on both sides and the river strewn with boulders. It was actually the terminal moraine of a glacier which had retreated considerably due to summer and global warming. Here we found a huge boulder blocking the stream and creating a partial lake with a long sand bank at its centre. We took several pictures here. Some people wanted to reach the snow which was visible closer on the opposite bank but there was no way to cross the stream as it was turbulent. So they decided to go further up the valley. There was a beautiful mountain of the Sankri Range which resembled in outline to Mount Kailas except for the horizontal striations. We reached a patch of snow further up and then returned to our camp by 3 PM. 

 

A man tried to cross the river riding a mule but midway the mule stopped moving and he had to jump into the ice cold water and pull the mule along. In the evening we had tea, soup and dinner of which I skipped the last but had the Gulab jamoons. We went to bed early as a cold wind started to blow outside.

6 Jun Wed: The next day morning was chilly and huge clouds had engulfed the valley and the mountains. As the sun came up the clouds moved up rapidly. Two dogs were playing with each other for almost 20 minutes. A man came carrying a young calf and we soon found the cow searching for it on the opposite bank. He put down the calf so she could see it across. She took the plunge and crossed the river and they were reunited. They waited until a woman came and drove them towards Osla. They passed us several times on the way.

 

We packed up and started out descent by 7 AM. Fortunately the weather cleared up and sun was in all its fury again. We passed wheat and rice fields but the mules used a route higher up. This time we took the detour to enter Osla as as we neared there were several children. An old woman was carrying a basket full of leaves for their cattle. We saw the old Someshwar (Shiva) temple but it was closed. 

 

The houses had slates stacked up as roof and had walls of wooded columns and runners with the gaps filled with rubble stones. There was a plywood lining on the inside. In one place we found people washing clothes in wooden tubs into which they got into and stamped the clothes with their feet. After the village, there was a steep descent to the river which we crossed over a concrete bridge to reach our camp site. In the evening we played cards.

7 Jun Thu: We continued our descent and sometimes climbed high above the Sabini river only to descend again to its level. I tried to take some pictures with my Nikon but Sagar made me pack up and hurry with his usual ‘Chalo Chalo’ as he was eager to get us to Taluka in time for the limited vehicles available there. At a wooden bridge, he made us stop a while and Phone Ma and others tried to copy the dances in Tamil Films. Later, picked up several stones as momentoes. There was a last steep climb and we had reached Taluka. There was a small tea shop into which we went and some people ate Maggie Noodles. We drank Mountain Dew to quench our thirst as we waited for the vehicle to come back. Eventually, we reached our guest house at Sankri and took ice cold bath after 4 days.

8 Jun Fri: We left Sankri and travelled back to Dehradun but used a different route to avoid the traffic at Musoori.

The Har ki Dun (Valley of God) is beautiful with variety of Himalayan Flowers which remain in memory even to this day. Here are some of the photoes.