Big Bang for the buck for our thali-makers

Among ET’s nerd readers with a sense of humour — a subset we sometimes reach out to without upsetting just the nerds — the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory is as familiar as it is a favourite. So, it’s only natural that many of them were beaming with pride when actress and real-life neuroscientist Mayim Bialik, better known as Amy Farrah Fowler in the TV series, showcased on social media last week her purchase of stainless steel bartan.

Now that a White actor of an American hit show has shared her ‘wow’ over the existence — and now possession — of SS cutlery, we may see metal dishware, standard in most Indian households, gaining respectability in many posher Indian households. The ‘sitar effect’ — young Indian city slickers in the 1960s70s into rock rather than raga, finding the instrument ‘cool’ after George Harrison took to it and Ravi Shankar got hippies at Woodstock ‘grooving’ to the sitarist’s soundcheck — of steel ka bartan would mean Indian soft power once again travelling via a hard, shiny plate courtesy a non-desi admirer.

Credit should be given to the small Indiana firm producing the steel — dishwasher-safe — cutlery. For many Indian producers, export possibilities beckon. With the right marketing and ‘rupee-ier’ prices, environment-friendly SS thalis and tumblers could be the next yoga.