It was winter, and on that cold day a hot cup of coffee was what I needed desperately. Looking at the microwave oven and the plastic container in which the coffee was getting heated, I wondered what one would have thought some 40 years ago if you had said you could heat liquid using a plastic container. The thought of keeping a plastic container on a gas stove and the plastic bowl instantly melting is what we would have imagined!
I remember how we used to cook using firewood in the 1960s. We had a horse-shoe shaped platform made of clay, which was the ‘stove,’ with the firewood smouldering below. The clay stove later graduated to an iron one. This ‘stove’ would be placed right under a chimney specially built in the kitchen for the smoke outlet. In the early 1970s we had the kerosene stove; a popular brand name was ‘Umrao.’ This stove had a flat kerosene tank at the bottom and a raised platform with hollow pipes in the middle, much like pillars arranged in a circular pattern. Wicks, as thick as a cigarette and about 10 inches long, were inserted into these pipes that would run all the way down into the kerosene tank. A lever enabled you to raise or lower the wicks and this is how you controlled the burner flame.
The stove was lit using a match stick, each wick lit individually. Putting the stove off was done by means of the lever with which the wicks would get retracted, thus stubbing out the flame. The base of the cooking vessels would have a thick coating of carbon deposit and cleaning it was a pain. The introduction of the kerosene stove also meant the end of firewood, which had ruled from the time man learned to cook food.
In the late 1970s, there was an improved version of the kerosene stove, popularly known as the pump stove. This had a fuel tank at the base and there was a piston fixed to it and a valve to close/open the path to the burner. To light the stove, a scorpion-shaped contraption known as kakda was dipped in kerosene and clamped to the base of the burner and lit with a match stick. The burner was connected to the tank below through a nozzle.
When the kerosene burned, the fuel in the tank below would be under pressure, and slowly a small circular flame would appear in the burner. The valve had to be opened to let more kerosene vapour to the burner and pumping resumed. With the increase in pressure, the burner flame would spread with a loud noise. To lower the flame, the valve had to be partly opened to reduce the pressure and then tightened until the desired flame size was achieved. If you wanted the flame to be bigger, you had to hit the piston again. Pump stoves are still in vogue.
Then in the 1970s came liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG. It quickly gained popularity as it was easy to use and did not tarnish vessels.
A new connection would then cost ₹180. We could not afford to pay the entire sum for a connection but a bank came to our rescue by extending a loan, with an equated monthly instalment of ₹18 a month. I remember how our family rejoiced when the last instalment was paid and we no longer had the burden of repaying the loan.
The cost of a cylinder then was about ₹18. The 1980s saw the introduction of the gas lighter that we commonly use now, which has almost destroyed the match industry.
The next generational change is something we are familiar with when the microwave oven was introduced. It was very strange to see how plastic containers were used for heating but a metal container is a ‘no, no.’ This was followed by the induction stove which lets you heat even using metal containers. So within one generation, we have moved from ‘stone age’ to ‘flameless age’. Needless to say, cooking has become easier now.
rmohun@rediffmail.com
