Wali under the Tree

(Summer 2007)

One of the best Dosas I ever ate was in Wali’s tea shop, perched under a Neem tree. It was at the entrance to the little village of Tummala, in the midst of the hills of Anantpur. There was a four poster shack covered in thatch, with a mud plastered platform where he kept his stove with the Dosa pan on it. Another little stove was used to make tea. A few benches besides the platform, fresh air from the hills, and the silence of a road less travelled completes the picture.

Wali was a lean dark man with a white lungi tied up to his knees, a white half-sleeved banian and bright black eyes. He got busy with the Dosas while his wife made the tea. Wali only sold Dosas served with the groundnut chutney that was a specialty of that area. Between us, I and my two friends downed fourteen dosas (which is quite a number considering that normally one can only eat one or two max); followed by tea.

Wali refused to take money at first, “You are visiting our village. You are my guest; I cannot take money from you”. On my insistence, he told me the amount. When I heard it, I had a shock, “Twenty eight rupees for the dosas and three rupees for the tea, totally thirty one” For a single Dosa in a mid level udipi hotel anywhere in the state, we have to shell out at least twenty rupees, and in Hyderabad it will be not less than thirty or forty rupees. And even in remote villages nowadays they sold tea for nothing less than three to five rupees. As I gave the money, he got angry seeing me give thirty and one. He returned me the one rupee, “What? You want to give me this one rupee also?”, as if it was an insult. I didn’t know what to say, and took back the coin.

The next time I visited the village, it was past the dosa time. So we just contended with tea. This time it was six teas. Wali refused to take money. “I cannot take money from you. Even last time, you insisted, so I had to take. Can’t I even offer you tea or what?” How much money this man must be able to make with his two rupee dosas and one rupee tea? “If you go on offering free food and tea to all those who come from outside, how will you survive?” I asked him. He just smiled, “I am comfortable, don’t worry”.

I couldn’t go to that village after that but I often wonder about Wali and his unforgettable dosas.