Mindless Mumbai is a Photo Blog from Mumbai, India by Kunal Bhatia. Art Architecture Food Street Urban Festivals Travel People Portraits Signs Photojournalism Candid

chabi-wallah

key duplicater in 4 bungalows by kunal bhatia

at 4-bungalows junction while on way to college. thats a sign for a key maker / duplicater below which these guys were hanging around. im thinking of introducing a new label that would be called: "wallah". there are already photos of a bhaji-wallah, mewad ice-cream wallah, newspaper-wallah, rickshaw-wallahs and even a band wallah. what do you'll think?
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for the non-hindi speaking browser: wallah is a sort of suffix added to any occupation. so a guy selling flowers would become phool-wallah (where phool = flowers), and a lot our lives revolves around many of these wallahs, right from the dhoodh-wallah (milk man) in the mornings to istri-wallah (the guys who irons clothes) in the evening.
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chabi = key
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8 reactions:

Benjamin Madison said...

So I guess that makes us blog-wallahs?

Daniel J Santos said...

Interesting, great post, well done.

MumbaiiteAnu said...

Nice photo of chabi-wallah

Pasadena Adjacent said...

What's the hindi word for architect? Do architects become __________wallah's? I do like Mr. Madisons comment that we might be considered blog-a-wallahs.

Kris McCracken said...

Every time I see the 'wallah', my mind converts it to 'galah'.

It doesn't throw things out too much though, as I work with a pack of galahs!

magiceye said...

candidly refreshing

expat said...

I heard that in Indian village life, there's even an "ear-wax wallah", who goes around with a metal hook cleaning out peoples' ears (for a small fee). Think that's true?

escape said...

interesting. here in the Philippines, wala (sounds like wallah) it means nothing or none.

i like the term blog-wallahs. nice idea benjamin.

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