There were so many traditional, intriguing items that our moms (and dads, dadis, nanis, maybe nanas and dadas) had in their kitchens and we grew up watching them use them, that aren't around any more. Seeing these old-fashioned implements brings a touch of nostalgia but they also may offer practicality and sustainability for the future.
Still use the grinding stone for making chutneys & masalas? It requires a whole bunch of muscles but also greatly enhances the taste of the end result. Can you recall the gasar-gasar sound of it? It has a whole family of relatives: Large stone mortar bowl & chunky pestle used for making dosai/idli maavu/batter, the chakki, often spied in Bollywood films for making powders & the metal masala pounders.
Once our days began with the lighting of the clay choolah, some were small, portable varieties. Everyone had gas stoves, but sometimes cylinders ran out and folks also supplemented their burners by using choolahs to boil drinking water, heat bathing water (during power cuts), roasting vegetables, for slow cooking biryani for an earthier flavour and it was a good place to set dahi overnight.
Fridge water is very cool, refreshing especially when you add ice to it. But it does not beat the taste of the sweet, cool water of a surahi or mud ghara that keeps drinking water naturally cool, even in hot summers, that we once travelled with too. They are great eco-friendly alternatives to refrigerators!
These jars remain the go-to choice for storing new pickles to mature. But were also used to store salt and other suitable kitchen ingredients.
These fans, pieces of heritage that remind us of simpler times, were used like bellows to pump up the choolah fire till it glowed bright orange, and yourself when the heat was too much and the power had failed. Buy them for your barbecue parties.
The traditional wooden/metal churner used for making buttermilk, lassi, thandais was called a mathani. Some homes still prefer this over modern blenders! The most skillfull buttermilk makers rotated this with a string set up. Street vendors still use them.
Our grannies often made paan at home and used a small, hand-held cutter for carefully slicing betel nuts into small pieces. Some were very ornate and of silver too, that would today fetch zillions on eBay. It was an art to maintain an elegant paan kit.
The metal container used collect the fresh, unboiled milk for the home before packaged milk became common, its bags now littering the landscape and ending up in the stomachs of the very cows that produce the milk.
This beautifully designed brass container was used to store freshly-made rotis, keeping them warm and soft for a long time. They are/were used for farsan too. Many had little latches too.
The old kerosene lamp is still used in many homes during power cuts or for decor to add an authentic vintage vibe.
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