Respected Sir/ Madam,

As your newspaper's origin predates the invention of stainless steel in 1913, you were certainly around when stainless steel utensils were getting popular in South India. Were you behind the name ‘ever-silver’ given to stainless steel. This English phrase ’Ever-silver” is only used by the Tamils now, as if it was a Tamil word.

I know you don’t like my letters. Corona cases are climbing again, so I have no one else to tell the irritating exchange I had with my dear wife Mangalam over “ever-silver”.

By now all your readers know, I do not interfere in kitchen matters and Mangalam has the full control of kitchen like Kejriwal has over Delhi. But, I got involved when Mangalam asked my help to take out some vessels kept in the attic of one of our bedrooms.There I was climbing a ladder and taking out items one by one. Given all the dust in there, I found one good use of my Corona mask.

Here is the transcript of the exchange I had with Mangalam (MB) .

JB : Here is this large stainless steel drum. Now that we have an RO filter for drinking water, I hope we don’t need this any more.

MB: Yes. But how can we discard it. It still looks so good. We hardly used it. Do you know my mother bought it in a çhit’ by saving month after month from the household budget, without my father’s knowledge? Only after she won the draw in the chit, she announced and then we got this drum. Sorry, we cannot give this away.

JB: Ah! Here is this four container stainless steel carrier, with a spoon-cum-lock at the top. I remember when we used to go in long train journeys we used to pack them up with meals for three times. It is ages, since we travelled like that.

MB: Yes I know. Show me. See, each container has MB engraved in it, with such beautiful and artistic lettering. Those days, people used to engrave it in hand. I remember my athai gave this as a gift during my wedding. She is no more. This is her only memory left with me. No.

JB : Now I got something I am sure you will discard it. Here is this stainless steel ‘Gooja”( a traditional jug). Who uses this any more?

MB : There is so much nostalgia linked to this ‘gooja’. This ‘gooja’’ is nearly 70-75 years old. My mother got it as a wedding gift from her grandmother. If we have a grand-daughter, I can pass it on to her. That will be like sixth generation inheritance.

JB : So Gooja also remains. Here is this big stainless dabba. Looks like it can keep 10-12 kilos of rice or sugar. Who eats or stores so much these days? I hope we can discard it.

MB : It must not be one dabba. You only see the biggest one. It is a full set of dabbas. One goes inside the other like those Russian dolls. You know, this whole set is a collection that my mother built over years. She used to collect this by exchanging all the old clothes in the household. She cultivated a relationship with one woman who would come to our house whenever she had containers of the same design. Over three years, she built this set. We all used to watch when the bargaining used to happen how many dresses, would be needed to exchange. I remember, once my mother gave away one of my father’s favourite shirt for getting one of the dabbas. He was so upset. Sorry, these dabbas have too many sentiments attached to them.

JB: I am getting down now. Even though, we have not used them in the last 15 years and may never use them again. I know you are not going to discard any.

By the by, are you still serving filter coffee in your offices in the ever-silver davara-tumblers?

Yours in exasperation,

J. Bhoothalingam