Milk and maids
When I first set up house after getting married, the white revolution had not yet happened in India. It was not easy to get a good milk-supply. We lived in Pune and someone mentioned a college that also ran a dairy and supplied good milk. I spent a day getting “registered’’, buying coupons and so on.
The milkman came early each morning and rang the bell. And I heaved myself out of bed all groggy to take the milk packets and give him the coupons. Depending on the season, the milkman came in anytime from 5 to 6.30 in the morning. So on many mornings I and my wife lay awake since 4.30 too scared to go back to sleep lest we miss the guy. And so it went on till I mentioned this to a friend. He had a good laugh and said the solution was very simple. All we had to do was to hang a bag or basket outside and leave the coupon in it. Imagine, something so simple and it had missed us. Of course the milkman himself never mentioned it to us , though he must have been working with it in many other homes. Anyway we were finally able to sleep better. Though one of the things I was always curious and regretful about was, what if the college had employed Smita Patil to deliver milk and I had been missing seeing her every morning. So one day to set the matter to rest, I intentionally did not hang the bag.
We followed this hang-a-bag thing for many years since then. And every few months I would check out if the milk was being delivered by Aishwarya Rai or Sushmita Sen or Kareena Kapoor and so on. Of course it wasn’t. But as Mirza Ghalib said “Humko maloom hai jannat ki haqueekat lekin, dil behalaane ke liye Ghalib yeh khayaal achhaa hai” (I know paradise does not exist, but tis a good hope to live with)
But we have now switched to tetrapak milk pouches . It can be kept for long. Does not need boiling before use. One doesn’t have the hassle of accounting for coupons. If you are expecting guests you don’t have to go through the trouble of informing the milkman a couple of days in advance. The quality is good. And finally, there is never any doubt about who is delivering it.
When I first set up house after getting married, the white revolution had not yet happened in India. It was not easy to get a good milk-supply. We lived in Pune and someone mentioned a college that also ran a dairy and supplied good milk. I spent a day getting “registered’’, buying coupons and so on.
The milkman came early each morning and rang the bell. And I heaved myself out of bed all groggy to take the milk packets and give him the coupons. Depending on the season, the milkman came in anytime from 5 to 6.30 in the morning. So on many mornings I and my wife lay awake since 4.30 too scared to go back to sleep lest we miss the guy. And so it went on till I mentioned this to a friend. He had a good laugh and said the solution was very simple. All we had to do was to hang a bag or basket outside and leave the coupon in it. Imagine, something so simple and it had missed us. Of course the milkman himself never mentioned it to us , though he must have been working with it in many other homes. Anyway we were finally able to sleep better. Though one of the things I was always curious and regretful about was, what if the college had employed Smita Patil to deliver milk and I had been missing seeing her every morning. So one day to set the matter to rest, I intentionally did not hang the bag.
We followed this hang-a-bag thing for many years since then. And every few months I would check out if the milk was being delivered by Aishwarya Rai or Sushmita Sen or Kareena Kapoor and so on. Of course it wasn’t. But as Mirza Ghalib said “Humko maloom hai jannat ki haqueekat lekin, dil behalaane ke liye Ghalib yeh khayaal achhaa hai” (I know paradise does not exist, but tis a good hope to live with)
But we have now switched to tetrapak milk pouches . It can be kept for long. Does not need boiling before use. One doesn’t have the hassle of accounting for coupons. If you are expecting guests you don’t have to go through the trouble of informing the milkman a couple of days in advance. The quality is good. And finally, there is never any doubt about who is delivering it.
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