"Neera Aahein"...anyone who's spent a few days in Pune would be used to seeing tiny kiosks with a painting of a palm tree along the roads. They serve a cool, refreshing drink... NEERA. I love neera. It tastes somewhat like coconut water. I can drink up to 4 glasses bottoms up in one go and feel like I've had a few sips. I don't drink from all neera kiosks... coz they're famous for adulteration with sugar and water. I visit 3 trusted vendors.... one in Aundh, in Deccan and a recently discovered one near FTII on Law College road. But this post is not about my neera fixes...
The neerawalli or maushie in Aundh... near Baner Phata... she's one amazing woman.. simple, professional, honest, totally customer oriented, shining eyes that are ready to smile at you, a kind word that is not intruding, attention to detail, great memory... she's 4th pass or something like that.. its immaterial.. she exudes a certain kind of sensitivity, grace and dignity that just touches my heart. She's been running that stall for the past 20 years. She lives in Hadapsar and in the early days she used cycle all the way.. thats 15 kms one way. Now they have one more stall on Baner road, a rickshaw driven by her husband (that is now used for the commute), a son who works in the admin dept at Serum Institute, another son is in 12th and Rs. 1 lakh per month offers to run her stall by wannabe neerawallas.
Not to mention the die hard fans of her and her neera... pure for sure. She has people who phone her from abroad letting her know when they will be in town and who travel a few kms just to have a glass of her neera. I ask her, isnt she tempted to give her stall to be run by someone else? I mean, one lakh per month is a pretty decent sum for anyone...She replies, "If someone cheats just once.. all the credibility and trust built over so many years will just go down the drain. I can't take that chance with my customers. And though it's tiring, it's ok.. after all its SEASONAL business na... " No kidding she actually said seasonal :-) though the rest of it was in hindi.
Aah well...
This recently discovered neera place near FTII is managed by a young geeky looking chap... complete with specs and all. I think he reads when he's not serving customers. I've been enthralling him for the past few days by my capacity to down several glasses of neera in one go. The other day he ventured to comment that it looked like I loved neera a lot. I smiled sheepishly, nodded, said thanks and left. Today... I'm on my second visit to the kiosk.. I ask for just one glass, because I'd had a few glasses an hour back... he smiles and serves up another glass. Just like that.. wouldn't accept money for the second glass.
Just makes me wonder... so many people.. with whom you exchange a few glances or at most a few words... Though there is no name for my relationships with my neera walla or neera maushie.. apart from being a customer... there's something indescribable that goes beyond that.. not quite a friendship... but more like some tacit understanding of comrades. And somewhere, we care for each other.
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