A tea-seller is known as a “Chai-wala“. A lunch-box delivery chap is known as a “Dabba (box) –wala“. A guy from Mumbai is known as a “Bombay-wala” and so on and so forth.
“wala” (male) is an Indian suffix indicating that the person is related to some kind of activity, be it selling a product or hailing from a certain city. The female form is “wali”.
Oscar Castellino 
[…] opera in India. He is your average man, enjoys the simple things in life, especially chai. (Read: What does wala mean?) There is a certain energy, however, that sets him apart. Seeds of this energy have been set in […]
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