The city’s heat feels a few degrees warmer when we sit down with Hamida and Mumtaj Shaikh in their makeshift Diwali kitchen in Chembur. The chatty sisters gladly indulge us in small talk while waiting for the oil to turn hot to fry batches of sev. Conversation is about their family in their hometown of Palitana in Gujarat, and their superior cows that could put the breeds in Mumbai to shame. In the same breath, 51-year-old Mumtaj reveals how different life is now. “My husband passed away three months ago. I have sons, but their lives have been taken over by chronic alcoholism. This — cooking here every day — is the only thing that gives me joy,” she says.

Kitchen camaraderie

3 Sakhi, a group of enterprising women from low-income backgrounds in Kurla’s Kasaiwada have been meeting at the rented kitchen in Chembur every day for the last three weeks to churn out Diwali snacks (faral) by the quintal. A week ahead of Diwali, they’ve already shipped out 100 kilograms of chakli, besan ladoos, shankarpali and chivda. Sujata Sawant, the frontwoman of the group, turns her WhatsApp screen towards us. “These are messages from West Bengal, Kashmir, and Bengaluru. How do I tell them that the shipping might cost more than the products,” she chuckles between responding to the incessant notifications.