From Selling Dhoklas Door-To-Door to Becoming Mumbai’s ‘Bhel Queen’: Remembering Nila Mehta

Posted On Nov 18, 2019 By admin With Comments Off

Nila Mehta, an inventor known as Mumbai’s’ Bhel Queen’ who introduced the city to deluxe homemade Gujarati goodies, passed away on Tuesday, 15 October, at persons under the age of 83.

Planning to go vegan? Try this all-natural vegan snack smorgasbord for those post-lunch cravings !

Starting in a minuscule one-room chawl in South Bombay( present Mumbai) in the’ 70 s, she single-handedly heightened her passion to a business, Nila Mehta Snacks, which went on to become a major national and international favourite.

bhakarwadi Nila Mehta

In a dialogue with The Better India, her lad Pratik Mehta took a walk down the memory lane and chronicled his mother’s incredible journey.

Originally from Bharuch, Gujarat, Nila moved to Bombay after her wedding.

” My mother was a homemaker racing a sizeable household of six, in a small chawl on Napean Sea Road. When it became difficult to make ends meet, she started taking orderings for seaming sarees and outfits at the local Hindu Stree Mandal ,” recollects Pratik.

The job was painstaking–creating intricate embroidery on one saree necessary no less than a month–but the money was not satisfactory.

Nila was an excellent cook, so one fine day, she decided to prepare a considerable lot of dhoklas and headed to the neighbourhood women’s association, with around twenty containers of the same.

Churning the smash for the excellent Dhokla

The crowd there chiefly comprises of wealthy, privileged maids, and when one of them casually tried the dhokla, she was instantly smitten by its heavenly taste.

So much so, that she expected the part bunch from Nila, to serve to her guests at a house party that day.

“But mother had always had incredible foresight, and respectfully turned down her request. She was indicated that if one person takes all the containers, others would never get to taste her culinary masterpieces, ” shares Pratik.

Thanks to her prescience, her Gujarati delicacies soon became a hot favourite in South Bombay, without the need for any grand endorsement. She started receiving more and more orders for dhoklas, which she used to deliver door-to-door initially.

Later, as her business increased, clients were requested to pick up the menu from Nila’s house, or she referred her lad Pratik to deliver the distant orders.

“We stayed in a minuscule accommodation on the 4th storey. There was a huge water crisis in our range. Supply was restricted to an hour, and that too early in the morning. There was no elevator, and there was only one community telephone on the first floor, through which all her seeks used to come. But nothing could restrain my mother from devoting all her go and exertion in her meat venture.”

While Nila’s husband woke up at 4 AM every day to empty the rice, urad dal and supermarket the water for the dhokla says, she would be in the kitchen, calibrating every single ingredient with the weighing scale.

” She was a true perfectionist, and would never abide the slightest aberration from the traditional recipe ,” remembers Pratik.

Needless to say, her hard work paid off in leaps and bounds. Bulk tells started pouring in from bridals and gatherings at illustrious households, and soon, she had to hire more staff to assist in her kitchen.

Busy in her kitchen

At any marriage in the following areas, her dhoklas were an indispensable item on the menu. Top catering services teamed up with her to serve the same, at an average rate of around 60 -7 0 kilos in a day.

“I remember, at a Bajaj wedding, we had to deliver an ordering of 1600 kilos of dhokla. There was no water supply that week at our residence. There was no disappointment from the clients; rather, the family sent a truckload of irrigate cans to our room. My mother, her staff and none of the family members slept or ate for two days. In the end, we were able to pull that off with elan! ” chronicles Pratik.

Between 1984 to nearly 1996, Nila was the unparalleled’ Dhokla queen’ of Mumbai, though she used to sell other logo Gujarati snacks and sweeteneds on a smaller scale.

At the same time, there was an increasing demand for her bhel. Finally, around 1996, her husband suggested that she concentrates less on the dhokla since the amount preparation of the same was becoming most charging for her. That’s when she changed her focus to churning out more of the appetizing bhel.

Being a baked snack, the bhel is likely to be exported to anywhere in India, compressed in airtight containers. So, within a short period, Nila started receiving prescribes from Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and many other parts of India. Slowly, the word spread among the NRI population as well, and she began to export her products to the USA, UK and other countries.

Incidentally, Nila was the pioneer of the much-popular Tirangi Dhokla or Tricolour Dhokla which can be found across eateries in India on Independence Day or Republic Day. She also initiated the aesthetically satisfying Panchrangi Dhokla–true solace food for the soul.

” I was working as a CA at a top conglomerate. However, appreciating the huge success of my mother’s business, I decided to quit the job and be helped ,” mentions Pratik.

Gradually, the Nila Mehta brand opened up stores across Mumbai, and the products became a staple on the shelves of all supermarkets and grocery shops.

Along with her dedicated team

Recently, they have also opened up their online entrance to take orders through Facebook and Instagram.

Nila’s unfortunate downfall will undoubtedly leave a void in the hearts of their own families, her works as well as her massive network of patrons. Nonetheless, her bequest will continue to thrive gloriously through her classic recipes and her memories.

Likewise Read: This Mom Left an IT Job to Deliver Homemade Food, Now Owns 11 Restaurants !

( Edited by Gayatri Mishra) Like this story? Or “ve got something” to share? Write to us: contact @thebetterindia. com Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.