Keeping their Victoria alive

Tangewalas in Kalyan.

One of the largest urban growth centres in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Kalyan is incidentally also home to some of the region’s last tongas, also called Victorias.

“In 1932, when the first train was rolled out from Kalyan, our great grand father Mohammad Siddique Phalke bought a horse cart,” says Rehan Phalke, one of the owners of Kalyan’s last remaining horse-drawn carriages. Rehan, his father Mushtaq (75) and his cousin Khalil continue to operate their business as horse owners, a career that three generations of the Phalke family has kept alive.

“Earlier, the Victoria played a major role for transportation before buses started to ply. Kalyan then was a port near Durgadi Fort, famous for trade. Horse carts decorated with colourful veils (pardah) and lights (kandil) were seen here and royal families from different parts visited on their decorated horse carts,” says Mushtaq.

A designated tonga stand used to be located at the Old Kalyan station and at other well-known places, including Titwala, Ambernath and Bhiwandi. Of Kalyan’s 145 tongas, only 50 remain now with the government having stopped renewing licenses for the past five years.

The Phalke family wakes up at 4 am, dedicates 2 hours to cleaning and grooming their horses, and then feeds them hay, jaggery and chana. Around 7 am, they begin to ferry people from Dudh Naka to Kalyan Station.

The Phalke family wants to keep the tradition alive and are trying to do so by renting and providing their 10 horses for weddings. “Horses are not just a means of livelihood for us. They are as dear to us as our children,” says Mushtaq.