Page 13 - Seniorstoday September-2023 Issue
P. 13

Mumbai had ice factories spread across            as soon as the tin is melted. With stainless
         the city. These made blocks of ice that a          steel, aluminium, non-stick Teflon coated
         man on a bullock cart transported to little        vessels in use these days, the kalai is no
         restaurants within the local area. For             longer required and today very few people
         example, in South Mumbai, there was an             used brass and copper vessels that required
         ice factory in Sassoon Dock and one was            tin coating. The kalai walas have vanished
         in Ballard Estate. These bullock cart ice          from the cities back into the small town and
         carriers used sawdust to cover the ice that        villages.
         was then covered with gunny cloth. This
         insulated the ice even in the sweltering           ● The Masalawaali Bais
         summers.
          Ice was supplied to small restaurants,
         canteens, soft drink shops and was loaded
         into an ice box. Even today, sugarcane juice
         vendors have ice blocks from which they                                                             Image courtesy: atlasobscura.com
         break up little pieces and put in your glass.
         Another unknown fact was that the ice
         factories were also very helpful if there was
         death in a family when they would bring ice
         up to the flat where the body could be kept        Every May, women would go around
         on ice for preservation.                           homes and pound dry cooking masalas
                                                            that would almost last a year, if they were
         ● The Kalai Wala                                   properly stored. They were three women
                                                            who would carry their own mortar and
                                                            pestle. The mortar was a large wooden
                                                            bowl in which three big pestles were used
                                                            to grind the masalas that the three/ two
                                                            women would stand around the large
                                                            mortar and in a well-choreographed
                                                            movement, pound the masalas. Within
                                                            four to five hours, a household yearly
                                                            consumption of masalas was ground,
          Indian kitchens used a variety of vessels.        stored and sealed into the bottles. Besides
         Some copper, some brass and some earthen.          money, people would give them tea
         Water was stored in copper and earthen             and maybe a little snack. All the mixers
         vessels. Brass vessels were used for cooking       and grinders have made these women
         and these were coated with tin and this            unemployed and go back to their villages.
         was called ‘Kalai’. Constant use of cooking
         vessels would wear out the kalai and               ● The Taakiwaali Bai
         they had to be recoated once in two-three           The ancient art of the grinding masalas
         months. Kalai protects from food poisoning         in most Indian homes was a daily ritual.
         and blackening of the vessel. The process          Most homes had their own indigenous
         of kalai is to melt the tin and coat the vessel    stone grinders in some shape or size of form


        SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #51 | SEPTEMBER 2023                                                          13
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