Tech-tonic shifts: Technology meets consumer needs

I grew up in mofussil Jamshedpur, a township that I still call 'my home,' a place where the dreams and molten hopes of kids get forged into steely resolve.

- MANISH TIWARY

I grew up in mofussil Jamshedpur, a township that I still call 'my home,' a place where the dreams and molten hopes of kids get forged into steely resolve. My hard-working but loving parents initiated me into the value of hard work in this quaint town where, as legend has it, the idea of 'industrial India' was conceived. Our home was frequently bustling with guests—it was an era before 'digital' had made inroads and grocery shopping was done in person. My mother would often ask me to dash to Raju ki dukaan (Raju's shop), our portly neighbourhood kiraanawala, to fetch Milkmaid. Raju bhaiya, with his toothless smile, would hand me a tin and I would race home. My mother would whisk up Anarsa (a Bihari dessert), which my two sisters and I would eagerly devour in minutes, often before our guests had a chance to take their first bites. We would then sneak into the kitchen, dunk our fingers into the Milkmaid tin and lick it up when no one was watching.

Over the years, I witnessed the brand's packaging evolve from an iconic white tin to a decidedly blue can, and now even a modern re-sealable pouch—a reflection of how different generations of India experience that same emotion of eating its condensed milk. Today, this same brand is ordered via quick commerce by my son whenever he returns from the US to make sinfully delicious Vietnamese cups of coffee dolloped with a layer of "Milkmaid" for us.