This may also be spelled as "chaiwallah". Literally taken, this means
"tea seller". It is composed of two Hindi words, "chai", which
means "tea" and "wala" (or "wallah") which means "person
associated with". Tiny tea stalls are a common sight in most Indian neighborhoods and people gather round them to drink tea and chat. Therefore the typical tea stall owner knows all the latest neighborhood gossip and rumors. Thus in BRF parlance, when a member posts something like "My chaiwala says that ..." or "according to my chaiwala, ...", it means that he or she is reporting some unofficial inside information which cannot be independently verified at the moment. The source is usually some insider connected with the project in question, e.g. an engineer, mechanic, manager, accountant etc. In many cases, the insider may also be a close relative or a friend of the BRFite. In order to protect the insider source and avoid revealing how he/she is connected to the project, the BRFite instead says that the source of this information is "the local chaiwala" or "Chaiwala News Network." Sometimes the information may be true or it may just be an empty rumor. Also see: |