The past can never be outdated as it has our existence rooted in it. The same is true for Indian eateries that have been around since pre-Independence days as well. While restaurants have begun experimenting and embracing global cuisines across the country, these time-tested eateries carry with them a whiff of nostalgia that never fails to charm their loyal diners. Though many of them have evolved with time,these quaint eateries make for an interesting stop for every traveler looking to get a taste of history and local culture along with lip smacking food.
This Independence day, take a step back in time with these 24 eateries that take you on a gastronomic journey through pre-independence India.
1. Tunday Kababi, Lucknow
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Globally famous for its exquisite
Galouti kebabs, kormas and
biryanis, Lucknow's Tunday Kababi is believed to be established in 1905 by Haji Murad Ali, the one-armed star cook of the Nawab of Lucknow. Tucked away in the narrow gullies in the old area of Lucknow, the eatery still uses the same age-old intricate blends of spices to make its sensational non-vegetarian gourmet preparations.
2. Indian Coffee House, Kolkata
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Tucked away amidst the dingy bylanes of College Street (Kolkata's academic hub), Indian Coffee House has long been an intellectual hangout and meeting place for students (and ex-students) of the Presidency College and other institutions. Great personalities like Rabindranath Tagore, Amartya Sen, Manna Dey, Satyajit Ray, Ravi Shankar and several others frequented this place. Mutton cutlet and chicken
kabirazi are the must haves on the still-very-cheap menu.
3. Britannia and Co, Mumbai
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One of the Mumbai’s most loved restaurants, Britannia first opened its doors to British officers stationed in the Fort area in 1923. A cult restaurant, Britannia is where Mumbaikars head to when they are need for some seriously traditional Parsi fare. The place still retains its age-old charm and heritage furniture with the added bonus being the personal touch of the current owner, the immensely charming Boman Kohinoor, who hangs around making small talk and personally taking orders. Must-trys include their outstanding Mutton and Chicken Berry
Pulav.
4. Mavalli Tiffin Room, Bengaluru
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Founded by Parampalli Yajnanarayana Maiya and his brothers in the year 1924, MTR is a culinary landmark in Bengaluru. Serving wholesome fare that has its origins in the Udupi cuisine of the coastal Karnataka, MTR has quite a reputation for its high standards of hygiene and cleanliness. During World War II, a significant shortage of rice supply resulted in MTR inventing the Rava Idli, a much-loved breakfast dish of south India.
5. Delhi Misthan Bhandaar, Shillong
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Located in downtown Shillong's bustling Police Bazaar, Delhi Misthan Bhandaar has been serving the locals with mouthwatering sweets, savouries and a lot more since 1930. The dedicated sweets section serves arguably the best
jalebis and
gulab jamuns one can get in town. The shop entered its name into the Guinness Book of World Records in the year 2008 for frying the world's largest
jalebi ever that was 75 inches in diameter and 15 kgs in weight.
6. Leopold's Cafe, Mumbai
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Established in 1871, Leopold's (popularly known as Leo's) is one of Mumbai's most iconic cafes and a must visit for anyone who visits the maximum city. A symbol of the old world charm of Bombay, Leopold's also plays a central role in the 2003 novel by Gregory David Roberts,
Shantaram. The restaurant is always abuzz with people indulging in scrumptious meals that include everything from burgers with beer to decadent desserts.
7. Glenary's, Darjeeling
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Opened by an Italian named Vado, Glenary's was later brought by the family of a local worker who became the manager here. The quaint bakery cum restaurant is over a 100 years old and is a hit with both locals and tourists alike. Known for its baking, the desserts at Glenary's are par excellence. Do not miss their yummy apple pies, sticky cinnamon buns, fresh meat pies and Darjeeling tea.
8. Karim's, Delhi
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Established in 1913 by Hazi Kareemudin, Karim's has won multiple awards and many accolades for its lip-smacking non-vegetarian fair. Bang in the middle of Chandni Chowk, with the beautiful Jama Masjid just around the corner, Karim's has an arsenal of recipes carried forward from the days of the Mughal empire. The flagship items on the menu are the mouthwatering
Mutton Nihari and
Chicken Jahangiri.
9. Favourite Cabin, Kolkata
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Best known as the haunt of the freedom fighters such as S C Bose and poets such as Kazi Nazrul Islam, the Favourite Cabin at 69B Surya Sen Street was founded in 1918 by Nutan Chandra Barua and his elder brother Gaur Chandra Barua. This unassuming tea cabin is north Kolkata’s oldest tea stall and has been quenching Bengalis' thirst for chai and adda for over 94 years. The staple here is still the same even after all these years - hot tea, complemented by biscuits, cakes and different toasts.
10. Joshi Budhakaka Mahim Halwawala, Mumbai
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Joshi Budhakaka Mahim Halwawala is a little sweet shop, nestled in the bylanes of Mahim, that was started nearly 200 years back! The founder, Giridhar Mavji, used to sell a special
halwa that gradually became extremely popular across Mumbai. Today, people from all over the country visit the shop to buy the famous
Mahim Halwa. Unlike the traditional
halwa,
Mahim halwa is prepared by rolling out a cooked mixture of wheat, sugar and ghee in the form of sheets that is cooled and cut into delicate squares.
11. Rayars Mess, Chennai
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Located in a cramped nook in Mylapore, Rayars Mess was established in the 1940s by Srivivasa Rao (called the Rayar by the locals) and has been spinning a delicious tale for over 70 years. The mess serves fluffy
idlis, crisp
vadas(with
ghetti chutney), and scalding-hot degree coffee to its loyal customers as well as to many foodie visitors for just a few hours every day. Despite this, the unbeatable hygiene and exceptional taste of food at this tiny eatery is why people don’t mind travelling long distances to eat here.
12. Hari Ram and Sons, Allahabad
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Tracing its origins to the year 1890, Hari Ram and Sons is one of the oldest street food shops in Allahabad. The more-than-a-century old shop has a fan following that includes many eminent personalities and is only growing bigger with every passing day. The shop is famed for its delicious snacks made in pure ghee and lip-smacking
chaat, palak ki namkeen, masala samosas, and
khasta kachauri.
13. Flury's, Kolkata
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Situated on Park Street in the heart of Kolkata, Flurys was founded in the year 1927 by Mr and Mrs J Flury. This pre-independence tea room of the British has a beautiful old world charm and is famous for its rum balls, meringues with cream and a delicious English breakfast. Satyajit Ray used to visit Flury’s every Sunday morning for breakfast and is rumoured to have maintained a credit account at the eatery.
14. Dorabjee and Sons, Pune
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A charming, old restaurant in Pune, Dorabjee and Sons was started by Dorabjee Sorabjee back in 1878. Initially a humble little tea stall, the eatery soon started serving traditional lunches that quickly became popular. A little restaurant with a simple exterior, Dorabjee and Sons uses time-tested recipes handed down through generations to create signature Parsi specialties such as
Dhansak, Patrani Machchi and
Salli Boti.
You May Also Like: Parsi on My Plate: How Bawa Cuisine Is Adding Spice to the Indian Palate
15. United Coffee House, Delhi
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Established in the year 1942, United Coffee House holds an important place in the hearts of food lovers in Delhi. Located in Connaught place, it was one of the first few restaurants that offered fine-dining in the capital city. The place has retained its pre-independence antiquity and is still frequented by diplomats, bureaucrats and tourists. The indulgent menu, though, has evolved over the years and today offers a plethora of options - from international and Indian classics to the recently added Oriental cuisine.
16. Shri Sagar (CTR), Bengaluru
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Established in 1940s, Shri Sagar, better known as CTR, is one of the most famous restaurants in Bengaluru. Known for the filter coffee and its unparalleled
masala dosas, Shri Sagar is Malleshwaram's landmark
thindi joint, the local lingo for small eating places that offer quick South Indian bites. Must-trys include the
benne masala dosa and the feather light
idlis.
You May Also Like: Food Secrets: Eat Your Way Through Thindi Beedi, Bengaluru’s Favourite Eat Street
17. Chafekar Dughdha Mandir, Nagpur
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Set up by Vasudev Govind Chafekar and his friend Narayan Sakharam Palkar in 1931, Chafekar Dugdha Mandir was a meeting point for freedom fighters of Nagpur. A functional eatery with a simple decor, the restaurant has a steady and loyal stream of customers which keeps it bustling with activity all day. The eatery is famous for items like
dahi misal, sabudana vada, shrikhand, khichdi, masala milk and the local favourite,
piyush.
18. Shaikh Brothers Bakery, Guwahati
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Established by Shaikh Ghulam Ibrahim way back in the late 1800s , Shaikh Brothers Bakery rapidly became one of the most preferred bakeries in Guwahati, not only for the locals but also for the British administrators. It was also a favourite of Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. According to a report in The Telegraph, cheese sippers from this bakery were regularly served on Nehru's breakfast table (he was extremely fond of it) when he visited Guwahati.
19. Mitra Samaj, Udupi
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Believed to be almost 100years old, Mitra Samaj is an authentic Udupi restaurant famous for its delicious
dosas, bullet
idlis and
Goli Baje, also known as Mangalore
Bajji. The eatery follows the Udupi tradition of temple cooking under which the use of onion, garlic and radish is prohibited. For those visiting this simple eatery for the very first time, the must-try items should also include Mangalorean Bun,
Masala Dosa, Dakshin Kannada-style
Khasta Kachori and
badam milk.
20. Nizam's Restaurant, Kolkata
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The pioneers of making the first
Kolkata Kati Rolls, Nizam's was set up in 1932 by Raza Hassan Saheb who named the place after his only son. The story goes that one day a customer, a foreigner, was in a big hurry and he asked for something light, dry and minimally messy that he could take away quickly. Thus was born the Nizam’s kebab roll. The tender flavours of meat entwine in a freshly fried
parantha to create these rolls that truly deserve their iconic status!
21. Bademiyan, Mumbai
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Opened in 1942, the Bademiyan Stall moved several locations during the tense pre-Independence years before finally settling down at Colaba in Mumbai. It was started by Mohammed Yasin who came to be known as Bademiya for his long flowing beard. The shop is famous for its spicy succulent kebabs and
biryani, and is always jam-packed till late in the evening.
22. Kesar Da Dhaba, Amritsar
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An iconic
dhaba of Amritsar, Kesar Da Dhaba was established by Lala Kesar Mal and his wife in 1916 in Sheikhupura, Pakistan. It moved to Amritsar after the partition of India in 1947 where it was frequently visited by Lala Lajpat Rai and Jawaharlal Nehru. The
dhaba's velvety
dal makhani, slow-cooked overnight and garnished with fresh creambefore being served, is legendary. The creamy
palak paneer, stuffed
parathas and the sinfully rich
phirni are also a must-try.
23. Confeitaria 31 De Janeiro, Panaji
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Located in the gorgeous old Latin Quarter of Panaji, Fontainhas, the 80-year-old Confeitaria 31 De Janeiro is one of the oldest bakeries in Goa. The cozy little shop serves traditional Goan sweets and savouries like the moist date and walnut cake, the scrumptious
bebinca, the creamy sweet rolls, the crumbly prawn
risois and other teatime treats.
24. Pancham Puriwala, Mumbai
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Pancham Puriwala was set up over 150 years ago when its founder, Pancham came from Agra to Bombay to try his luck selling savouries. His crispy golden
puris were so popular with the locals that his shop survived and expanded over seven generations. This tiny, two storeyed eatery is always crowded with eager clientele clamoring for mouth watering delicacies that include
khichdi, kadhito (crispy
bhindi curry), potato curry and truckloads of different types of
puris.
Also Read: From Colleges to Diplomatic Enclaves, These 14 Iconic Canteens Are Among the Best in India
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Soman started running from Ahmedabad on July 26 and completed 67 km on the first day itself to reach Anand. On the second day, he completed another 62 km in the extremely humid weather.
Santosh with his Mother.[/caption]
He left home and went to a relative’s place in Mumbai. The relative was a wholesale book dealer. Every morning, Santosh would take some books from him and sit near the bus stop at Vakola Bridge. It was a busy area during the mornings, so sales were brisk - Santosh would turn over the day’s earning to his relative every evening. After a year, when Santosh left to go back to his village, the relative gave him Rs.500 for the work he had done.
This encouraged Santosh to come back to Mumbai and start a book ‘business.’ He started collecting bestseller books from scrap dealers and selling them at bus stops and railway stations. He also got married and had children.
In just a few years, Santosh was able to put up his own shop at Ville Parle. He was doing extremely well until one day, in 2009, his shop was broken down by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and he had to shift to a small alley where there were hardly any customers.
This came as a major setback. He had to repay the book dealers from whom he had bought books for his shop. No one helped him during this hard time. It was difficult for him to even pay the school fees for his children.
Dejected and miserable, Santosh returned to his village. Since he did not have much to do now, he started reading the Ramayana.
Santosh at his Book Shop.[/caption]
Simultaneously, in 2011, he began to write a piece of fiction based on his learnings from the Ramayana. Santosh felt that even the most villainous characters in the epic, especially the demon king Ravana, had some redeeming qualities to them. So his story explored Ravana’s past before he encountered Ram - his years growing up as a Brahmin boy in a forest and the ascent to the throne of Lanka before he was decimated for his evil deeds.
Although he had no intention of publishing the book when he started writing, once the book was complete Santosh decided he wanted to share the story with the rest of the world. But he had written it in Hindi and he wanted his first book to be published in English!
Santosh (Left) and Vinod (Right)[/caption]
Not to be dissuaded, Santosh continued to implore Vinod to work on the translation until the latter gave in and agreed. After that, the two met regularly at a small restaurant after the day’s work was over for both of them. Sometimes they started as late as 10 pm and worked well into the early dawn. Vinod read every version of the Ramayana suggested by Santosh. And slowly, after two years of hard work, the book took its final shape in English - with both their names as authors.
“I did not find it any different. Though I have never compared the Ramayana and the Holy Bible as such, my knowledge and understanding of the two books is that they are very similar; the basic message is very simple: Live a life in complete harmony with one another and with nature. We want to give the same message to our readers through our book Karmaayan,” says Cherian.
You can mail Santosh and Vinod at santoshbookstall@gmail.com
Or you can meet Santosh at: Santosh Book Stall, Irla Society Road, Near Bhagubhai College, Alpha market, Ville Parle West, Mumbai.
A: There are enough landmark judgments already that invalidate the need for a ban on instant triple talaq. It got invalidated back in 2002 by the Supreme Court (SC) in the Shamim Ara case and even before that in 2001, through another significant ruling. There is a lot of talk around the Shah Bano ruling of 1985, saying that the new Act [Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986] was unconstitutional but its constitutional validity was challenged by Danial Latifi, Shah Bano’s lawyer. The case didn’t come up for many years and the verdict only came in 2001 by which time Latifi had passed away. [This SC judgment provisioned for the future of the divorced wife (including maintenance) and did not confine it to the ‘iddat’ period only.]
At that time there were many interventions – the National Commission of Women intervened and filed a public interest litigation, as did many women’s organisations. All together, the court heard nearly 30 petitions and nearly half of them were from husbands. Why were they appealing, after all the law was supposed to be favouring them? It was because the courts were giving a lump sum as maintenance to women. They said, maintenance had to be given for the ‘iddat’ period [during which a Muslim widow or divorcee is not allowed to remarry] and a lump sum settlement was to be made as a provision for the future as well. Only when those dues are paid is the marriage dissolved. Unpaid dues were then decided on by the lowest court, the magistrate court. But while the Shah Bano case is well known, most are not aware of the Danial Latifi judgement.
The Shamim Ara judgment gave a detailed procedure for Islamic divorce as per Quranic injunction: first, [before saying talaq] there should be arbitration; there should be a meeting between husband and wife. (In Islamic law, arbitration is mandatory.) Then talaq has to be pronounced in front of witnesses; then a period of iddat follows and following that if there is no reconciliation, the divorce becomes final. Shamim Ara was not the first judgement that invalidates triple talaq, there was an earlier one from the Gauhati High Court in 1981.
Then the Protection for Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 gives women the right of residence in the marital home, protection against domestic violence, maintenance, compensation and child custody. It’s an expeditious Act, every week the date for these cases comes up. The case has to be closed within six months, which doesn’t happen. But an interim order does come at least within a month and protection is given within a day.
According to me, the law works as per the lawyer not as per the law; a law is only as good as a lawyer’s legal strategy.
A: No, it is not needed because already there is uniformity of rights. What is UCC? It is the uniformity of rights. And can you change a social practice only by law? I don’t think so. For example, child marriage cannot be banned by law. You have to create [the right] conditions. Why does child marriage happen? There is a fear of girls getting raped; of not being virgins when they marry. You need to create security for girls, educate them, teach them skills, assure parents that their daughters are being looked after so marry them at the age of 20. In Rajasthan, parents marry off five daughters at one time because they are so poor. Will you file against these parents, put them in jail? How does this serve any purpose? It is one thing to have a law, another thing to make the law work for the very people for whom it has been made. There is a need to understand the law, understand the reality and then write about it.
Fatima Shaikh[/caption]
According to Indira Gartenberg, Organising Secretary, LEARN, Mahila Kamgar Sanghatana and scholar at Mumbai's Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), “Women form a large majority of home based workers and no matter what they do they are extremely low paid. In several Dharavi slums, adolescent girls and the physically disabled, too, are engaged in exploitative work.”
With the exception of the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), trade unions have overlooked the conditions of this huge workforce, which includes 30 million women and contributes crores to the economy. In fact, according to Gartenberg, as a first step to realising the ideals enshrined in the ILO (1996) C177 Home Work Convention, which spells out a legal framework for securing informal workers’ entitlements, it’s imperative that they are duly identified and recognised as workers.
Fatima shares, “I have grown up in Dharavi. Even as a little girl I remember being woken up at the crack of dawn to be sent along with my sibling to sell vegetables. We walked the broken down lanes with a heavy basket-load and it was really tough negotiating the narrow spaces especially during the long monsoon season when rainwater flooded the streets.” As she grew older she found employment as a domestic worker. But when despite labouring all day she was unable to make ends meet she took on embroidery assignments during the night. In time she felt her life was going nowhere. Marriage to a construction worker brought additional responsibilities and three daughters but penury was one constant she couldn’t shake off. “How could there have been any difference. I had no birth certificate, no identity card, no rights as a worker. Although we were paying Rs 1,000 as rent for a room where the five of us stayed there was never any proper proof of residence. Consequently, securing government welfare entitlements was difficult.”
It was desperation for change that motivated her to link up with LEARN. Gartenberg says, “In 2008 we decided to speak to the women about their rights as workers. We felt that once they understood that they had legitimate entitlements and felt confident enough to demand them, it would have a multiplier effect on other aspects of their life as well.” After Fatima attended a few meetings she realised that whether one was a domestic worker, a key chain maker, a scrap sorter or an embroiderer everyone was going through the same problems. Moreover, she started seeing how their poor living conditions only added to their difficulties. The small size of homes in Dharavi along with the overcrowding and miserable civic amenities invariably took a toll on their health and work. “Most working women complain of severe backaches, hand and leg pains, irritation in the eyes and diminishing vision. If the children are small, then they have to find time to attend to them, sometimes even ignore them if there is a pressing deadline. In the absence of a crèche or a day-care centre, there is simply no other way out. With meagre daily wages and no real safety net to fall back on, everyone just has to go on. Be it healthcare or rent or education everything requires money, especially if they don’t have government identity cards,” shares Fatima.
Savitra Suresh[/caption]
Swampy Dharavi was once the stronghold of fishermen working in the waters of the Mahim Creek. At the time it was just a little settlement between Sion and Mahim. When immigrants from different parts of the country flocked the city seeking work they put up tin shanties on the ground that was still free and unregulated.
“Some four decades ago my father had paid Rs 300 for the room our family of seven called home,” says Fatima sitting in the two-room office of the Sangatana in the Rajab Ali neighbourhood, named after a community leader, and companion of the late Haji Mastan, a Mumbai gangster. But most residents like her father had no ownership documents. For years touts made false promises to provide a ration card at an exorbitant cost. Fatima was once asked to pay up Rs 2,000.
“Even if I wanted to I could not afford to spend that much money on anything,” smiles Fatima. It was the LEARN activists, who eventually assisted her to get a ration card for Rs 50. Ever since then Fatima has remained an active member. Initially, she went house-to-house talking to women about the advantages of becoming a member. “I wanted other women to improve their life as well," says Fatima who along with her colleagues has managed to ensure that women associated with their network have ration cards, election cards and property ownership documents.
Things have improved on the amenities and infrastructure front, too. Sheila Devi, 40, Secretary of the Sanghatana, reveals, “Today most of the shanties are owned by the people living here. The shacks have been converted into concrete rooms, many with an attached toilet. The streets have been named and houses are numbered.” Like Fatima, Sheila used to be a domestic worker but nowadays the Sanghatana’s activities take up all her time. Savitra Suresh, who used to make leather straps earlier, devotes her hours to resolving the various concerns shared by the women workers. The three also sew and use the sewing machines set up in their union office to do some tailoring work in their spare time.
Fatima and Sheila Devi[/caption]
Their biggest victory so far has been a fixing of the wages. Under the Sanghatana, which has 5,000 members, there are six separate groups – the domestic workers, the largest faction with 2,000 members, has fixed Rs 2,000 as monthly wages for a home with a family of four. The home based workers group has about 1,500 members followed by garment workers, vendors, rag pickers and those who prepare and sell packed lunches. Remuneration for their services has also been laid down. Happy to be leading change from the front Fatima is positive that they will go from strength to strength. She has another dream, one she shares with all the women, “I want to own a home.” With Rs 1,000 saved up right now she has another Rs 25 lakhs to go, but Fatima has seen what hope and hard work can accomplish.
Source: By http://www.bollywoodhungama.com [
Source: By Mongyamba (Own work) [
About 5000 dabbawalas in the city of Mumbai carry 2 lakh lunchboxes of home cooked meals to offices across the city everyday. They are highly efficient and their reach is immense.
According to Subhash Talekar, spokesperson for the Mumbai Dabbawalas Association, the dabbawalas are carrying organ donation information and cards along with the tiffins to be delivered to clients everyday. In addition, several dabbawalas themselves have signed up to donate their organs after death.
"Someone, probably like me, who wants to donate, might do it by reading this and knowing about it. I think it's a very good initiative," said Madhur Bhandari, a professional who has lunchboxes delivered to his office daily by dabbawalas, to 
Starting off as a library in 1987, Vacha expanded in 1995 to work with girls studying in municipal schools, where Mumbai’s underprivileged send their kids. Housed in a municipal school, the Vacha office became a space where girls came to experience a freedom they could not at home, not only because their homes were often small, air-less rooms, located at the edge of a marsh or garbage dump; although that too was a factor. Nischint Hora of Vacha remembers the excitement when they provided second-hand cycles for girls to ride in the school’s compound: “They felt they were flying!”
Vacha means “speech/verbal expression/articulation” in several languages and for these girls, the organisation has created a space for them to be themselves and learn to speak up. Vacha chose to work with girls in their early adolescence because, according Medhavini Namjoshi, the executive director, it is an age when girls are constantly being told what not to do.
“There has to be somebody to tell them you can do so many things”, be it reading, writing, drawing, taking photographs or dancing. Linked to this was the objective of imparting the feeling of self-worth, that “being a girl is not depressing”, to counter what they were made to feel at home.
Moreover, the idea was that if they are empowered when they are young, they wouldn’t take injustice lying down when they grow up. Truly, Vacha girls aren’t willing to take nonsense and this is evident when one sees their creative expressions, particularly their poems and paintings.
Most of their poems, which they read out proudly not just in front of their families but also their neighbours during Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations, refer not just to the discrimination they face at home and on the streets but also convey a determination to fight back.
It is this self-confidence that is Vacha’s greatest achievement. Consider the environment these girls live in. Doing housework is a given for them. So is being treated as an inferior. In one family documented in Vacha’s book, Experiencing Girlhood - Stories from Bastis in Mumbai, only the father and brother got to eat good quality rice.
In ‘Bole Kishori’, a compilation of creative writing, essays, art, photographs and cartoon strips by adolescent girls, one of them asks: “Is Chyavanprash (an expensive ayurvedic tonic) only for boys?” Restrictions on going out of the house, on talking, laughing loudly, and even relieving themselves, are also a given. So, Vacha decided to open centres in slums where they live in order to provide them with a place other than their school or coaching class - the only two places they were permitted to go. While the first centre came up in 2005 in Baandh, near the fishing village of Khar-Danda, today, there are centres in 15 bastis, including three in rural Kalyan-Dombivli, home to new migrant labour on the outskirts of Mumbai, and two in Valsad, Gujarat.
To get parents to allow their daughters to come to them, Vacha started by offering to teach ‘useful’ skills like English and computers. For the girls, that became the gateway to a new world, even if it was one within the basti – a world that allowed them to understand the forces that controlled their lives.
While talking to these girls, what comes across is their joie de vivre and the way they speak their mind. They resent not being allowed the privileges their brothers enjoy. Seema can come to the centre only because her disapproving brother is either out or asleep at that time. Ayesha recounts how her brother is made to wash dishes only as a punishment for being naughty. He often promises her Rs. 5 for doing the chore for him, but even before she can agree, her mother tells her to do it for the “poor boy”.
A group of Muslim girls groan at having to cover their heads. Some confess they do so only when they leave home; others find it easier to wear a scarf clasped under the chin though they hate it during the summer; some have got so used to wearing the dupatta that they now feel awkward without it. But given a choice, it’s obvious they would wear neither scarf nor dupatta, but live in jeans – “like boys do”.
The changes Vacha has wrought in them are not lost to their families. The girls laughingly recount their mothers’ complaints that their voices nowadays are so loud, they can be heard from across the street; that whereas earlier, they would silently obey, they refuse to lift their brothers’ dirty dishes now. Perhaps the biggest change has come in their attitude to going ‘home’ to the village. They still love the open spaces, but hate the attitudes.
Has there been a backlash against Vacha in the slums? Surprisingly, no. For, the girls’ new-found cockiness has also benefited the community. Thanks to Vacha’s field trips, they aren’t afraid to complain to the municipal office about garbage not being cleared (it gets done, too!); to insist that ration shops stick to rules and keep complaint books; to inform their basti about facilities available at the nearest public hospital.
“The video lectures focus on conceptual understanding of accountancy along with solved practical questions and detailed explanations. These video lectures have been prepared to include the concept, questions related to that concept and the solutions to those questions – all on the same screen. In this way, the user is able to correlate things in a better manner,” says Priya, who is a Charted Accountant by profession and is working on the website with a team of five people. This resident of Mumbai has now decided to quit her job and dedicate her time to AforAccounts. The other team members have day jobs and they volunteer whenever they are free.
After registering on AforAccounts, new users get access to the first few videos. For example, in a set of 16 videos, they first get access to only four. They have to then refer the website to three friends. When one friend registers on the website, the user gets access to another four videos, followed by another four, and so on. Users who cannot refer friends can call a number specified on the website, obtain a promo code and get access to all the videos in one go. Priya also provides promo codes to teachers and librarians, so that students who don’t own laptops or smartphones can still see the videos. The team came up with the referring model so that more students get a chance to know about the website. There is a comment section after each video for people to discuss their doubts too.
The website has over 1800 users and she receives constant feedback and appreciation from many of them. “A teacher from Punjab told me that in his one-hour-long lectures, he shows AforAccounts videos for about half an hour and then continues with the lesson, which is quite amazing. Students also write about how the videos are very helpful because they can have a look at them just before an exam and revise their lessons whenever they want," she adds, happy to have made a difference in their lives.
They cut the soles according to the required sizes, and use them to make the base of the slippers. The uppers are used to make slipper straps and the laces used to pack the footwear for donation. They send the shoes that still have some life left to them to athletes at the Sports Authority of India (SAI), in exchange for their old shoes. “Instead of melting the shoes like many shoe manufacturers do, we refurbish them so there is minimal carbon emission,” says Shriyans.
According to him, about 35 crore pairs of non-biodegradable shoes are discarded every year, worldwide. At the same time, 1.5 billion people in the world currently do not have footwear and millions of them suffer from diseases contracted because of unprotected feet each year. To fight this problem, GreenSole first selects the villages to work in, conducts surveys on how many school-going children need slippers, gets their sizes, and then provides what they need.
With a core team of 10 people and temporary labour that varies based on orders, GreenSole has donated footwear to over 10,000 people to date. According to 
They met during their running sessions at Priyadarshini Park in Mumbai and became close friends. The duo funded the company in the beginning with cash prizes they won at college events – from Rs. 3 lakh at the IIT Mumbai Eureka competition, a business plan competition, to Rs. 2 lakh at R-Idea National B-plan.
Shriyans and Ramesh are doing their bit for the environment and for helping the underprivileged. You can do your share too by simply contributing to their efforts with shoes that you would discard anyway. You will help change lives! 
All you have to do is click a picture of the crater and hit the ‘report’ button on the app. Spothole automatically geotags the pothole based on the GPS location of the smartphone. This information is then saved on the app’s server. Other viewers can view this information too and use it, if they want, to avoid the routes on which there are too many potholes.
However, the group soon realised they were "doing nothing but cribbing about the problem in a creative way." With a desire to do something more constructive, they started a crowdfunding campaign, raised a sum of Rs. 1.22 lakh and developed the app.
“The idea behind this project is not to resort to a blame game. We are not against the government or the system. We have to be in the system to work and solve civic problems. We are just proposing this collaboration to the BMC, saying that we have come up with this solution, so let’s use it together. We want to work with the government in a collaborative manner,” says Rupesh.
Recently, the group also started working with 
This group believes this technology can empower and enable citizens. They can report a pothole location and the entire data can be sent to BMC on the same day for the latter to take action. “Most of the problems happen because of lack of communication. We wanted to use technology as a tool to bridge this gap. Let’s say you reported a pothole on the app about two months ago and BMC fixed it after three days. You again notice the same pothole after two months. Now, because of digital records that are available on the app, you can track the frequency with which people have been reporting problems on one particular road, who the contractor who received the tender is, etc. And for this, we are willing to work with the government,” says Rupesh.
The group is also planning to work on an appreciation model in which the person who has reported the maximum number of potholes is given the 'citizen of the month' title.
Download the app 
Photo Courtesy: Shrikant Ayyangar[/caption]
Road Ahead
Swasth aims to expand further to address the growing need for good quality and inexpensive healthcare. Over the next 3 years, it is looking to scale the primary health centre model from its existing 18 centres to 52 centres in Mumbai. This could help extend healthcare to more than 70% of the low income population of Mumbai. Swasth’s ultimate aim is to ensure access to affordable and quality health services to 10 million low-income individuals by 2018.
Swasth’s work is critical. Early diagnosis and preventive health care programs keep children healthy and in school. They also enable people from Mumbai slums, like Abdul Khatoun, to take health precautions before their ailments snowball into health crises that require expensive medical interventions.