Take the left from the Jhamsikhel lane in Patan and you’ll reach Maila Dai’s place where eating good food actually means having lip-smacking homemade delicacies. The bright blue doors will welcome you, but with just two tables inside and two outside, you’ll have to wait for a place to sit if you go during peak hours.[break]
“Everyone knows me as Maila Dai but my actual name is Rajendra Rajak,” said a smiling Maila Dai with his wife, Durga, sitting beside him. This little place has been in the Dhobighat area for 16 years and “things haven’t changed much around this area,” put in Rajak.
After working in Bangladesh, Dubai and other Gulf countries, Maila Dai came back to Nepal and worked for an American family. Later, he also got his wife working with him.
“Life was going on fine. When I quit work, I started this small eatery,” he said, adding, “My wife cooked in the morning and I looked after the shop the whole day.”
The shop, at that time, offered meat chop, alu chop, sukuti and small items which almost all small teashop joints now offer in Kathmandu.
“Life hasn’t been easy for the two of us. Dukha napaesamma sukha kahanbata aunchha, hanh?” questioned Durga Bhauju with a wide smile while filling the plates with khaja sets.
The couple got married 17 years ago and has two children.
“My son is in Australia doing his Bachelor’s and my daughter is here doing her Master’s and working,” shared Maila Dai.
When asked if their marriage was love or arranged, Maila Dai blushed.
“It was love marriage. We met here and there and went to the temple to meet each other, and once we knew each other better, we got married.”
Durga Bhauju couldn’t stop laughing and just added that she doesn’t remember anything. “Seventeen years is a long time. I don’t remember anything,” she said, typical of a traditional Nepali lady.
The shop is open from 10 in the morning to 9:30 in the evening.
“I usually get up at 9 but my wife gets up much earlier, opens the shop and starts cooking,” explained Maila Dai. The shop is usually filled with people for lunch around 11 am and for khaja in the lazy afternoon hours.
The couple got a license for the shop three years back.
“My wife also quit her job and began focusing on our own shop. We’ve been doing well since then,” informed Maila Dai.
Durga Bhauju, while handing the cash back to a customer from a bunch of thousand and hundred Rupee notes, added, “After we both focused on the shop, we made heavier items like haans (duck) and khasi (mutton) ko choela, khana (full Nepali meals) and khaja (snack) sets, which doesn’t leave any time to cook smaller items.”
Besides good foods, you can also buy the fiery Akbare – also called dalley/round and jyanmara/killer – khursaniko achar (chilly pickle) at Maila Dai’s.
“These pickles have traveled across borders and seas. People take it with them,” boasted Durga Bhauju.
Life, as said before, hasn’t been easy for the couple, but it’s going on. They are happy being together with their children doing well for themselves.
“My daughter hardly comes to the shop, but it’s her choice,” expressed Maila Dai.
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