NANAJI PAV BHAJI

In the heart of Mumbai, were two twenty-year-olds Haricharan and Santosh, who worked at “Nanaji Pav Bhaji shop”. It was a hole-in-the-wall surrounded by the constant hustle and bustle of the people. Nanaji, the seventy-year-old owner of the shop, was a jolly, round man who baked the best pav around. 

The shop was just big enough for a large pot of bhaji to be boiling away in a corner, and the old oven inside the small kitchen. There was a square window with tiles tinted neon pink and green between the kitchen and the dining space, which had 3-4 wooden tables pushed to the walls. It was lit up by an old oil lamp, and the walls were covered with magazine cuttings and calendar pictures of different places and one very faded picture of a young Nanaji and a woman who looked strangely familiar, although it was hard to tell as the picture was quite faded.

Every day, Santosh and Haricharan would make their way to the shop at the crack of dawn, by when Nanaji would already be busily scurrying about the shop preparing for the day. Hari helped make the pav, and Santosh learnt to make the Bhaji.

They used to work with Nanaji as he told stories of himself and his old friend Saina. When he was younger, he met her on a trip to Spiti Valley in a bicycle group. She was a solo traveller who dreamed of one day going to Mumbai, the city of dreams. So, upon finding out Nanaji was from Mumbai, she was intrigued, and they spent their time exploring Spiti Valley together; after which she went back to Mumbai with him. Nanaji apprenticed at an old bakery in Spiti Valley, where he learnt to bake pav. Eventually, they lost contact and moved on, while the trip remained a pivotal point in both their lives.

Moved by the story and sure that they saw her somewhere, Haricharan and Santosh sought to look for Saina and reunite these old friends. So, every day after the shop closed, they went about on their dingy, old scooter looking for Saina in various neighbourhoods. Eventually, they found her in an old antique store on the corner of a street. It was filled with many oddities, among which they found a picture similar to Nanaji’s in a very old, battered frame; although, this picture was clearer. They immediately recognised her. She was a regular at the pav bhaji shop. She showed up every Tuesday at 6 PM, got a pav bhaji and nimbu soda. They asked her if she knew Nanaji, to which she said he was an old friend she hadn’t met in a very long time.

Excited by this, they hurried back to the shop. On Tuesday, they waited for Saina to show up and by 6 PM, she was there. They took Nanaji and told them who each other was. Nanaji and Saina rejoiced at having met again.