Milk - Indian Ishtyle

This picture reminds me of good old days in Madras, when milk used to be delivered in bottles. Many of these bottles used be delivered to people's doorsteps early in the morning. The lady that used to deliver milk in our colony was called Mangamma - really old and shrivelled but cheery. She used to deftly balance and carry hundreds of these bottles in her head. The only brand available back then was Aavin (Aa, in Tamil, means cow and Aavin meant Cow's). Heritage, Vijaya and all the other brands did not exist. The only other way to get milk was to have cow owners sell it directly to the consumer. This is what we did in our house and the milk was fresh, nutritious (no foul harmones) and tasty. Aavin milk was not quite fresh but still tasted (and does to this da) better than all the non-organic milk available in the US.

Slowly plastic became a cool material to package in, door to door milk vending stopped and private processed milk vendors multiplied. The bottles were progressively phased out. Milk in bottles is a responsible way to deliver milk. My grocery store buys the bottles back and credits the consumers the cost of the bottle. The bottles are then recycled and used again. A small but sustainable step in responsible consumerism.