when the chips are down
So, you know the potato crisps you get at the old-time movie theatres? Not the branded ones shilled by film stars – the ones that look like hey, they could have been fried and packaged in a cottage industry around the corner? Well, turns out that they kinda are! This was the glimpse I got into a wafer-ki-dukaan in Kotachiwadi one afternoon. Behind the posh, clean counter with the sealed bags of all kinds of fried farsaan was this massive man with an even more massive set of utensils. Look at the size of that ‘pateela’ and the fryer he’s using to literally paddle the crinkle-cut potato wafers in the scalding oil! Don’t miss the salli (as in salli-boti) and the already fried chips in the forefront.
P.S. Kotachiwadi was beautiful; really a small glimpse of Mumbai’s colonial past with the Portuguese architecture and the brightly painted cottages 
Excellent picture. Tells a great story, complete with the harsh overhead light, the tricolor flag and the rest. I’m curious about the sign at the top right, though. What did it say? “Good Will Back..?”
When the chips are down, call gopal. He is in Mumbai and can be reached at 9764824805 for the next four days in the evenings.
He tried calling you but you didn’t pick the phone and now Gopal, the paunch doesn’t have your number. And the paunch is not from eating chips but is from eating good food while making good friends at TISS
there used to be one near my place in borivli. i remember it because they would always give us school kids a handful of pan-fresh chips every time we passed by on our way home from borivli. must look for the “wafer factory” again
I discovered an interesting place in chembur,mumbai where one could get another kind of chips -karela chips(chips made from bitter gourd)they were really yummy, better than the salli.