On the job: Stockbrokers stop by, feed her cows for good luck at exchange

63-year-old Vatsala Shinde starts her day at 6.30 am. Express

AGAINST THE towering Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in South Mumbai, 63-year-old Vatsala Shinde and her three cows are a regular sight. The people who usually stop by to pray to the cows and feed them include stock brokers seeking bovine intervention for a lucky day at the exchange and lawyers seeking favourable orders at the nearby courts.

For 34 years, Shinde has been at the spot earning her livelihood from the food — laddoos made out of tur daal as fodder and grass — people buy from her to feed the cows.

“Some people think of this as their good deed for the day while others want some wish fulfilled. Many buy food to feed the cows every day. A few only come on big festival days like Ramnavami and Diwali,” she says.

Shinde starts her day at 6.30 am. From her Chembur residence, her first stop is at Masjid railway station where she buys tur daal from a nearby area.

She then comes to her regular spot near the BSE and awaits the arrival of the cows brought to her on a rent on a daily basis.

“Earlier, I would go myself and fetch the cows from the tabela near Ballard Pier. Now, the owner sends someone with the cows. I have to pay Rs 250 as rent per day for the cows,” Shinde says. She sets up the area, fixing a large umbrella to give the cows some shade and fills up water in containers for them to drink. While the tur daal fodder for the cows is priced at Rs 10 for two, customers buy grass as per their wish.

“Usually, I get maximum customers in the morning when people are beginning their day. After the cost I incur in renting the cows, Rs 50 as parking charges for the spot and other costs like water and grass, I end up making close to Rs 250 per day. It is barely enough to sustain my family,” says Shinde, who belongs to the nomadic tribe, Nathpanthi Davari Gosavi.

After she lost her elder son, Shinde has been taking care of her grandchildren.

“I used to work as a domestic help earlier. After I lost my husband in an accident, the money I earned was not enough to run a household. I saw other women of my community employed in this and I began accompanying them. In those days, the costs were lower. There were greener areas from where we could get the grass ourselves without having to pay for it,” says Shinde, who has been making ends meet by selling cow fodder for over three decades.

She says her affinity towards the cows has remained a constant.

“I take care of them through the day and I feel like they are my own pets, ensuring they are eating well and are not uneasy,” she says.

With change in the demography of the area, however, Shinde struggles to maintain her spot with newer eateries and establishments in the area demanding that she be removed.

Monsoon poses a different challenge and so do regular run-ins with the civic authorities. Recalling earlier days, Shinde says: “In those days, the stock exchange was also not completely digital. Most brokers would have to come to the BSE to invest. I had more customers then.”

Calling it a day at 3 pm, she says that not many come to feed the cows as the day nears end. Shinde then unties the cows.  “They go back to their stables on their own by the evening,” she says.