Sweet dreams are made of this

Its celebration time on Saifee Jubilee Street Abdeali Mithaiwala and his nephews are in the happy position of distributing their own wares to mark a momentous century run The familyrsquos Noor Sweets in the bustling heart of Bhendi Bazar has journeyed far and long since a modest start in 1922Four years back Abdeali Bhai had kindly packed me a box of heavenly soft doodhi halwa to take home after a rainy day of interviews in Bohri Mohalla then in the throes of major redevelopment A recent revisit proves interesting to learn more about Noorrsquos introduction to the city ever encouraging of dreams pursued by slogThe shop is named after his elder brother Nooruddin Yunus was the younger whose sons Huzefa and Hatim helm the operation with Abdeali opting for retirement Their father Hasanali Alibhai Gondalwala fled for Bombay from his ancestral Kotda Sangani village near Rajkot as a boy of barely 13 ldquoHis father our Dada died prematurely and extremely poor The family managed to eat one single meal a day with meagre earnings from working the old bullockdriven ghani which crushed oilseedsrdquoAbdeali Mithaiwalarsquos parents Hasanali and Sakina Gondalwala embarking for the Haj pilgrimage in 1965Washing and wearing the sole pair of clothes he came clad in Hasanali would quip ldquoSheher mein ghar nahin magar saara jahaan hamaarardquo After a series of odd jobs involving hard labour his thoughts turned boldly to selfemployment Hitting upon the idea of selling sweets he bargained for rented shop premises ldquoEven at 17 he displayed instinct and knack Gharaak neh jeh bhaaveh teh vechehmdashhe sold what customers enjoyed mostrdquo says Abdeali ldquoThe items were nothing fancy Basic ghee and maida products like boondi and balushahi were lossmaking initially A man he hired would be sent to hawk these in a khumcha on the road outside Royal and Taj cinemas in Grant Roadrsquos playhouse district Slowly doing better he could pay daily wages to added numbers of men from UP Never forgetting his struggler days he gave the poor discounts particularly during festivitiesrdquoRashida Johar whose mother Batul was one of Hasanalirsquos daughters says ldquoNanaji opened the shop by 6 in the morning to serve hot breakfast jalebis and malpua He habitually left home on the dot of 5 with a tooth powder packet Be it winter or summer he had his bath at the shop and brushed his teeth with that kaala daant manjan Unable to read the time he relied on my nani to tell him the hour As business grew he painstakingly taught himself reading and writingrdquoDamodar and Saroj Marathe at the 1963 inauguration of Saroj Sweets ldquoNo sale todayrdquo is chalked beneath ldquoWelcomerdquo on a blackboardThe thirst for literacy saw him subscribe to magazines like Chakram Begum and Ghanchakkar Chakram featured characters with the same names as him and his wife Hasan Chacha and Sakina Chachi amusing him no end ldquoHe repeatedly read aloud that story to the excited children who converged after dinner to hear itrdquo says Johar ldquoNanaji kept the shop closed on Tuesdays taking all his kids to Chowpatty and the Gateway to fairs at Mahim and Cross Maidan The waiting Victoria at the shop would whisk them off for a merry evening outrdquo Abdeali began sitting at the counter from 1962 with his brothers ldquoWe worked equally hard It was a team effort through and throughrdquo Five years before he joined the weights system changed from ser pound to metric kilos In 1975 three years following Hasanalirsquos death Noor Sweets modernised and stocked thirty varieties of colourful barfi stuffed khaja dry fruit halwa and sinful mawa samosa To what does Abdeali attribute the staying power of Noor in a competitive market ldquoIt must be our constant innovation and the decision to have no branches With native intelligence and a sharp eye for detail my father believed that personalised attention the food business demands would get diluted were we to expandrdquo Colaba branch of Karachi Chandu Halwai whose founder proprietor Chandulal Bahl generously fed Partition immigrants Across town Saroj Sweets in Chembur presents a classic organic transformation from simple to sophisticated In 1945 Damodar Krishnaji Marathe of Dhulia bought buffaloes in rural Vadavli site of the golf course today and first distributed milk in Chembur Ten years later A1 Saroj Dairy named for his wife opened in the gaothan supplying milk ghee and butter to residents who welcomed hygienic versions of these necessities at their doorstepProcuring the finest available grinders boilers and ovens Marathe next inaugurated Saroj Sweets and Restaurant in May 1963 Working on a local history of Chembur I sat in the companyrsquos office flanked by spotlessly gleaming kitchens and tried to avoid being distracted by the divine aroma of burnt milk and kesar While Sheshnath Marathe spoke of honouring legacy his wife Manisha added ldquoMy fatherinlaw reminded usmdashlsquoFestive occasions are for everybody Give people the best and priced reasonably toorsquo When a kaju katli batch was suspected slightly off he threw it into Vashi creekrdquo Stringent quality control was de rigueur for a mithaiwala as early as 1829 when Joshi Budhakaka Mahim Halwawala struck work in an unusual way Especially satisfied with their favourite cook Mauji Joshi appreciative Portuguese rulers provided him stall space on Kapad Bazar Road in MahimWhy that intriguing mouthful of a name Mauji Seth was nicknamed ldquobudha kakardquo because he was a familiar sight shouldering doortodoor deliveries of laddoos sev boondi and mohanthaal which the women of his house prepared handrolled Hitting on the USP formula for butter paperveiled halwamdashpulped wheat ghee sugar and saffron sprinkled with dry fruitmdashexplains how they acquired the ldquoMahim Halwawalardquo signoffldquoThe shop supposedly got assigned Bombayrsquos fourth telephone number 04 after the three reserved for police ambulance and fire emergency servicesrdquo says sixthgeneration Kiran Joshi We met in their Dadar shop which has stood from 1932 at Empire Mahal on Khodadad Circle or Dadar TT ldquoThe tram stop was exactly outside Many patrons could conveniently step in Without exaggeration I tell you what Irsquove grown up hearing That dying men often ordered it craving a last taste of our halwardquoBringing me an ornate fishshaped wooden mould contouring the mawa ni macchhi customers book by the boxful Joshi also showed a letter in which Nehru wrote ldquoWe have always been pleased with sweets from Dhanji Girdhar Maujirsquos grandsonrdquoIn the facing block Empress Mahal situated on the opposite quarter arc of this imposing quadrant Imperial Mahal and Harganga Mahal are the third and fourth buildings designed in IndoSaracenic style by Sohrabji Bhedwar in the 1930s is an outlet of Punjabi Chandu Halwai Karachiwala The legendary mithaiwala is yet another with antecedents dating to the 1800s Under the gentle gaze of founders framed in wall portraits and between nibbles of tantalisingly labelled Tansen Halwa and Kismat Halwa I discovered this was established in 1896 in Karachi by Chandulal BahlIn the stormy aftermath bred by Partition the generosity of Bahl impressed Sri Prakasa the first High Commissioner to Pakistan Bahl declined payment for feeding refugees The chabu chewy in Sindhi Karachi Halwa was rechristened as Bombay Halwa or Karachi Bombay Halwamdashbrand salute to an urban tadka wonderfully blending goodness and grace in less intemperate times ldquoMuch of our lsquoMithai namarsquo comes from troubled historiesrdquo a school friendrsquos grandmother told me Already sated with sai kadhi and aloo tuk for Sunday lunch we were savouring spoonfuls of kheerni and sev barfi for dessert She went on to cite bittersweet examples of enterprise born from the divisive trauma of 194748 One being Mukhi Tharu of Shikarpur with a trade that had flourished from humble dakh bazar beginnings in 1920s undivided India Stoutly refusing doled out funds here he chose to strive selfreliant instead mixing gulab jamuns tasty enough to be consumed in a flash at the refugee campIn the mid1960s Nanu Tharu as he was known in Sindh set up a small stall in partnership at the Mumbadevi Temple compound of Zaveri Bazar This was with members of the community who were as focused on rising above deprivations suffered postIndependence Tharu Mukhi Bhandar moved to Khar in 1968 where the patriarchrsquos descendants continue to dispense mouthwatering pure desi ghee treatsThe authenticity of ingredients and composition reflects a tensile social fabric Describing the traditional varo textured with caramelised sugar and delicately diced nuts a Tharu greatgrandson has said in another interview ldquoYou can select your nut of choicemdashalmond cashew unsalted pistachiomdashwith green cardamom and poppy seeds It resembles chikki but richer in tasterdquo Just like the string of immigrants still stirring what will hopefully remain a robust pot of the united flavours of BombayAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacom