फिरकीचा तांब्या...Love of Metal Utensils

 

There was a time in India, everyday use utensils of aluminum, copper, brass were advertised.

 

The accompanying ad is supposedly dated before 1947 and its illustrator is unknown to me. 

 

The brass-ware the lady is holding is a water container that once only rich, upper middle class people used to carry water. In Marathi, we call it 'Phirkicha Tambya' (फिरकीचा तांब्या). 

 

I remember my own pre-school class of 1964-65 in Miraj that used to be held in Hansprabha talkies (where great Balgandharva made his Marathi stage debut, now Balgandharv Natyamandir) when three richest kids in the class carried those brass water containers and they used to keep them on top of a classroom wall. 

 

I used to watch them from time to time and envy. They looked like Aladdin's lamps to me!

 

Buying utensils and recording family's name on them used to be an important chore in a middle-class home. I often used to accompany my mother to that shop in Miraj. The shop used to be extremely noisy because banging of metal utensils and owner speaking above that ding.

 

These days most middle-class Indian homes have more metal utensils than they need. Aluminum (and alloys), brass, copper are not much used. It's all stainless steel.