Can we Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Refurbish, Repair, Repurpose or Recycle?

I was recently watching the new phenomenon of claiming Indianism called Kamala Harris.  I saw her visiting actress Mindy Kaling's house.  They celebrated being south Indian and cooked Masala Dosay in Mindy's house (Video - https://youtu.be/xz7rNOAFkgE)   Well the point here is when Kamala sees that all ingredients are packed nicely in Taster Choice jars both exclaim the importance of reuse and be smart in choice of things you buy everyday for the house.

That reminded me of the tin containers a drink called Ovaltine which hosted all the lentils in our house.  Glass containers were rare in a house full of children and I grew up in a joint family with 17 children at any given point in time.  We had steel plates and spoons (I use them even now) for ourselves.  My grandmother used to use silver plate and cups exclusively reserved for her.

Everything we did was as per this poster we shared, we always got hand me downs from cousins we used to meet in weddings.  We used to get almost uniform kind of clothing whenever there was a local mill sale in chikpet.  We used to love guests and that was the only time we got coffee in odd hours or what was left in the vessel.  Its first come first drinks/eats service.  Not that we were poor or anything the three brothers who ran the house had handsome salaries from BEL and in the traditional sense well settled.  But they were pretty much Gandhiyan in their approach.  Something which am sure came from my grandfather who came to Bangalore in 1924 on British Governments education service.  When we did not get the extra cup (not glass) of milk we were told it will go to the person who needs it.  Since we have had our half cup milk that is enough for our bodies.  Well that was the policy.

My youngest uncle (my father had 4 elder brothers and 2 elder sisters) was our favorite.  We used to have annual excursions (never to a movie) to circus, a park etc.  I do not have memory of all this unfortunately, but what I remember is we used to carry neatly knitted bags with food packed for us.  No outside food allowed.

My grandmother had a cousin named Keshava, he was my favorite.  He was the one of the first uncles to take me to a hotel to eat dosay or get hotel food into conservative household managed by the boss.  The three bothers were the bread winners but the boss was clearly my grandmother.  She was a total badass lady, will write more about her soon.  She never allowed any outside food in.  But Keshava used to sneak in dosays from Mahalakshmi Tiffin Room or Bhattara Hotel.  The dosay's used to packed in banana leaf and wrapped in news paper and a loosely wound cotton thread.  That thread used to end up in the kitchen on to a hanging hook to be re used later on.  And yes it did get re used all the time, definitely not for garlands to be offered to gods.

Milk used to come in cute little milk bottles with thin aluminum foil, you will get next day's milk on exchange of that bottle.  If you do not carry your bag the vendor selling fruits/vegetables will reluctantly give a paper bag made from newspaper.   The bags were re used as book binding material for us and also for giving dry snacks to guests who have come home.   Organic or green garbage was

disposed off in the coconut tree's base.  There was no non organic waste at all, if there would be any there was a bin kept in the corner of the road which used to get filled only once a week even with so much population on the road.  No one had any garbage that they have high desire to throw it on the street and create garbage.  The roads were far more clean and green than now.  People valued trees and flower garden in front of the houses.  There was no competition to build a house on every inch of the plot too.  There was always a flower garden and fruit trees in-front of all houses.  I remember plucking off guava and mango from Govindappa Road, which now sadly have no trees on that street.  All you can see when you look at the street is cars parked bumper to bumper on both sides of the street.  Scary but true...

The first ever time I remember seeing plastic was in form of basket, a neatly woven plastic basket which used to last lifetimes.  But there were other plastic based items at home like your electronic

equipment like Radio, Switches, Power cable casings etc.  But still wood and metal were predominant, unlike now which has plastic monopoly.  There was no plastic in our lives and we were as happy or even more happy than how we are now.  This does not mean I hate plastic, I only hate irresponsible use of anything by us humans who think this earth is only ours and we are the emperors.

I don't know it is right to blame the Indian markets opening up in the 90s lot of new things started coming in.  Indian's spending power too started to change, what we used to see on TV we used to seek and buy.  I remember getting a He-Man toy made out of plastic sometime in late 80s.  The wooden sticks to dry clothes gave way to plastic ropes.  Buckets, soap boxes, shampoo bottles and tubs in bathroom were the next change.  I remember using plastic water bottles of Bisleri but the soft drinks were still in bottles.

What made plastic a pandemic was not that we loved it, but the cost it reached us in.  We never found it inconvenient to take a basket to market, but now we go and demand for a bag.  Although BBMP has banned single use plastic covers we still get it everywhere.  Authorities are hand in hand with the vendors.  Vendors blame people who demand bags or else they will take their business elsewhere.   So this pandemic is here to stay.

I remember the leather slippers we used to get once a year.  We had to repair it how many ever times it broke or cut or got damaged.  They had rubber soles and till the time the leather on top gets a hole in it we could not change it.  Same with clothes, we used to have master aunts with magic in stitching techniques and we could never get away and buy new clothes.  By new clothes I mean not readymade but what the tailor stiches.  I remember the tailors were also masters at their craft, they could stich with one glance what my size was and stich me a shirt of what he thought would fit me.  No fashion designer intervention, also no wardrobe malfunction.

We have really killed what we had and have left only the skeleton for our kids to enjoy or to live with.  I hope they will act responsible or if they follow our footsteps it is going to be a disaster.