The drive from my house to my mother’s house is generally 30 minutes but on heavy traffic days it may take even upto 2 hours. It was one of those frustrating days when I reached her house in full 2 hours.
Irritated and thirsty, just as I was about to ring her door bell , I saw the lock on the door.
Knowing my mother’s perfection and intelligence, I looked for a note tucked somewhere.. and on carefully examining the lock I saw the note on it. “Going to grocery store nearby, leave the flowers at the door and come over to Newly opened “ 2020 super store”.
I just mentioned.. my mom was intelligent, she knew I hadn’t called since morning to wish her for her birthday so I must be on way.
I reached the store and saw her at the check-out counter. I stood at the end of the queue waiting for her to finish. She completed the transaction and the girl asked her to get her bag out. Mom sincerely apologized to her for having forgotten to get one as she had not yet developed the habit to carry one.
The counter girl suddenly raised her voice in the most degrading manner, shouting at her “ Its because of your generation that we people have to suffer the plastic menace today, you people have ruined it all for our generation”
I was about to rush to the counter in my mother’s defense when I saw her shift her weight from the left to right leg. We three sisters always knew that the moment she shifts her weight , it was an indication having rubbed her the wrong way.
Now I felt pity for the counter girl.
It was the older generations turn
Mom said, “ Sorry beta we didn’t have the ‘green thing’ back in our earlier days.”
Mom had taken offense, there would be no stopping now and she went on to explain:
Back then, we didn’t have disposable plastic spoons and plates when we had social gatherings. The families sat together making paper bunting and leaf plates ,you can discard the single use plastic cup in which you just finished your tea with ease, whereas we had to keep washing the steel glasses throughout the day so that there was always a fresh one available. lucky you.
When we had guests, we would run with old glass bottles to the near by store for milk or soda which he would exchange with chilled ones kept in ice.We had to reuse the glass bottles after they were sterilized and refilled, we never had the liberty of buying plastic bottles and storing in our fridge or drink in moving cars and throw on the road. You people are so lucky!
We had to carry everything in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. We never had the fancy book covers so we would even cover our books with these bags, or use them to wrap food for the travelers of the house.again lucky you !
We had to be very careful with our books as they were used by younger siblings, then friends younger siblings and then neighbors then back to someone younger in own family. One book catered to many students year after year. Wow ! You buy fresh books every year and discard.lucky you !
Beta, we never even had diapers for babies, can you imagine ? We would use and reuse and reuse the cloth diapers which were sun dried as no machines were there to wash or dry. No dish washer, no washing machines, no appliances in the kitchen to generate the heat of these, but I tell you .. you are lucky !
We hardly ever went shopping, as often the kids wore “hand- me-down” clothes.Heard there are some brands now who generate million of tons of waste clothes per annum as there is easy shopping, how lucky !
In the name of entertainment, we all played in parks as we had no mobiles, laptops, iPads all we had was maybe one tv for the entire joint family.We didn’t have gadgets which they feel are reason of extra heat generation today. Silly ain’t it, you are so lucky !
That’s not all ,we packed food also in cloth ,we never even had plastic wrap or aluminum foil. The kids and working males of the house did not even have the fancy plastic lunch box. They all had to carry big ,heavy steel lunch boxes which would be used for years together. You carry such fancy plastic lunch boxes or water bottles with pictures of your favorite superstar which you can discard as soon as you develop fancy for the next action hero. Wow !
No new plastic pens with plastic caps, no wrapping of food item in plastic see through boxes, no wrapping of icecream, chocolates, even basics like aata, Dal ,chawal in plastic bags. We went to local grocery shop and picked these open.
Nothing was received by us at home by amazon well wrapped in boxes with enough thermacol and then plastic wrapping. What can I say , so lucky !
Beta there is so much more but the queue behind me must be waiting for their turn as back then we all went in groups, talking ,sharing and caring about each other and not stood in queue with such small patience levels.
Kya Karen, aadat hi nahi thi”.
Our generation never understood or imagined a word called Plastic ,for us “Green” meant the beautiful harvested fields of the farmers,
For us “Warming” meant the heat of the sun in summer months.
Beta, but I still apologize for not carrying my own bag !!
Dedicated to my Super Mom, she is not old, she is matured !
