One of the posts on Chiliya Chai, a two-month-old Instagram handle (@chiliyachai) shows the pages of a diary scribbled with Urdu, Hindi and English scripts. The accompanying text reads: “Pages from a forgotten, secular Urdu diary where English and Hindi can coexist peacefully.”
The handle features tales of ordinary Muslims from Mumbai. There is an HR professional who moonlights as a dancer-choreographer, a raddiwallah who doesn’t understand the hype about International Women’s Day, and a girl from Mumbra (the area is labelled a Muslim ghetto) who loves all things Japanese, but fears being ridiculed for it. There are snapshots of things chanced upon — the dua inscribed on a door (a prayer for safety from the Quran), a writer’s desk spotted on the road near Manto’s erstwhile home in Byculla. Some of the posts also talk of significant personalities from Mumbai, such as artist Tyeb Mehta and film-maker Muzaffar Ali.
Chiliya Chai is run by freelance entertainment journalist Shaikh Ayaz (34), who is assisted by photographer Devang Vyas (he has shot some of the photos). Ayaz, who grew up in Byculla and now resides in Versova, considers the photographs and posts his love letter to the city. “This is a secular, humanist project. I wanted to narrate the story of the city through tales of one community, and show how Muslims have contributed to Mumbai,” he says.
{{/usCountry}}Chiliya Chai is run by freelance entertainment journalist Shaikh Ayaz (34), who is assisted by photographer Devang Vyas (he has shot some of the photos). Ayaz, who grew up in Byculla and now resides in Versova, considers the photographs and posts his love letter to the city. “This is a secular, humanist project. I wanted to narrate the story of the city through tales of one community, and show how Muslims have contributed to Mumbai,” he says.
{{/usCountry}}The title, Chiliya Chai, refers to a form of milky tea, but also denotes certain restaurants in Muslim-dominated areas of Mumbai where people hang out.
The Instagram handle comes at a time when the community is facing issues across the globe — US President Donald Trump’s ban on immigration from Muslim-majority countries, the Syrian refugee crisis — and battling stereotypes within India. “The religion is often thought of as regressive. It is time to have a discussion about Islam, to talk to the man on the ground,” says Ayaz.
Chiliya Chai also highlights the struggles of the community, be it urban loneliness (a psychiatrist speaks about how digital media alienates us from real contact) or the consequences of redevelopment in Muslim-dominated areas. “Life will be quite different once tall buildings replace the present housing. It will change the community and life as they know it,” says Shaikh.
Some of the posts are comic as well. One recounts an overheard conversation between two Muslim boys; one of them says, “Life bhar jitna tune bike chalaya hai agar utna Uber chalata toh tera abhi Maratha Mandir ke saamne bangla hota” (If you would have driven an Uber instead of a motorcycle, you would be rich by now). “It’s an attempt to capture the unique sense of humour of the community. “Muslims are morbidly funny. Humour is our defence mechanism,” says Shaikh.
The accompanying text with posts includes Ayaz’s original text as well as extracts from books by authors like Salman Rushdie and Mohammed Hanif. But the one thing that Ayaz is particular about is that the posts remain objective: “There is no sentimentality to the posts. The idea is to present a portrait of people and depict the changing colours of society. I am not trying to solve the problems of the community; politics is a more powerful medium to do that.”
Follow Chiliya Chai on instagram.com/chiliyachai