WHERE ‘GOOD’ MEANS ‘BAD’. Review on General Tips on the Roads of Mumbai

Its not just tarmac and cemented roads that can give you a bumpy ride in Mumbai, the Mumbai dialect can get you to places and out of tight situations. Mumbai with its confluence of diverse cultures and varied languages has generated a lingo all its own, which is now widely accepted by the masses in general and dearly known as ‘Bambaiya.’ Initiated by the super star of the millennium Amitabh Bachchan in Bollywood during the early 70s Bambaiya has become a recognized dialect with the advent of Munna Bhai and Circuit.

However a few jewels of this funny and yet fearful dialect are yet to be recognized and advanced by Bollywood; one such as ‘NALLA.’

‘Nalla’ in all probabilities is a Tamil word, which means ‘good, ’ as also in Malayalam. It is believed that the early South Indian immigrants to the city while hawking used this word to project their wares as ‘good.’ Being a bay city, smuggled goods always found its way to the hawker community and being an industrial island so did erupt an equal amount of spurious imitations of the originals, which also found its ways to the hawkers in the streets of Mumbai. Since the spurious and imitations were also sold by the same hawkers, over a period in time, the word got corrupted and ‘nalla’ began to mean ‘duplicate’ or ‘spurious goods.’

Ironic as it may sound, today the attributes of ‘nalla’ changes as does the venues. If you were shopping around town in the streets of Mumbai’s fort area, ‘nalla’ would mean duplicate or imitations. If you were shopping at Musafir Khana near Crawford Market, it would mean spurious or non-working goods. Travel up north towards Pydhonie and enter the by lanes, Jambli Mohalla, Rangari Mohalla or the wayward Maulana Azad Rd. where you have shops selling sanitary and plumbing wares and you have the variation of ‘nalla’ which would mean a piece of pipe or tap. ‘Nalla’ also means empty in the infamous tapori language.

However you enter a restaurant in any bylanes of Mohammedali Rd. and Bhendi Bazaar which is just a stones throw away from Pydhonie and you will not be surprised to find a ‘nalla’ looming on its menu. Go ahead! You can place an order for a ‘nalla paya’ or a ‘nalla nahari’ and you have a delicious broth or a variant of stew with a generous piece of marrow filled leg bone, invariably called ‘NALLA.’

Get in a squabble with a local ruffian (‘bhai’) around this area and in all probabilities he would swear to break your ‘nalla’ (leg), if he does threaten you so, use the power within your ‘nalla’ (legs) to run for his threat is no ‘NALLA’ (empty).