Plastic ban: Fun of packed cones

To begin with, this is not about the mouth-watering cone ice creams. This is about the style of packing groceries in the yester years. To be precise, during the years of my childhood till early 1970’s. Back then, plastic bags as we see today, were a rare luxury. Every grocer used to pack every grocery item in these paper cones. They stocked old newspapers and magazines and used them to make cone covers of sizes customised to the quantity of items.

Everything, including crystal salt, was packed in these cones by the deft helpers, usually boys, in the shop. They would neatly fold the paper on top after filling the required items and tie them with thin but strong gunny threads. I used to enjoy going to my regular grocer to give him the required list of items as I immensely enjoyed watching the boys making cones and packing. What a sight it was!

These cones were completely made in India; the predecessors to Make in India. Not branded but made instantly by the swift hands of the helper boys. It was truly a fine art. As young boys, we went to the grocers just to see this miracle of packing cones.

The advent of plastic bags subsequently faded this art into oblivion. Plastic covers made the work of grocers easy. Now, everything, including oil and ghee are available in sealed plastic packets. For some others, a plastic bag is a must-have.

Of late, however, there is a hue and cry about banning plastics altogether, as they are suffocating our nature. For some days, use of small plastic covers was abandoned but they were back again. Now, our government has mandated a minimum standard of thickness in microns for plastic covers. Now, you go to any market place, you can see these bags in various sizes and thickness too. If you want to measure their thickness you may have to keep a specially calibrated electronic screw gauge or a slide calliper.

In the meanwhile, paper covers too made a comeback albeit in a different way as bags or covers. Use of paper bags seemed to be a matter of brand management. Some naturalists has even made paper bags with multiple ply which is more a showcase item rather than a commercial run on.

But as the saying goes, ‘Old is gold’. This old gold mine of paper-cone packaging seems to have run empty. Pity, we can’t find these big paper-cones even in the museums and youngsters today may have lost the art forever.

The grocery shop workers of the days gone by deserve loud applause for their craft, ingenuity and creativity. The deftness with which they made, filled and delivered the cones to the customers is a sight, and practice, that I miss.