It was an essential part of middle-class life-style when we came to Pune fifty years ago. It appeared that its quality and the fat content were beyond comparison. Chitale Bandhu Sweets, a shop of the same people, was another Puneri hallmark and long queues of customers formed in front of the shop since early morning on festive days. The sweets were fine but expensive and the very idea of spending so much time for them was too much for us. My father always ridiculed this obsession with Chitale milk and sweets.
We abandoned the sweets but my mother stuck to Chitale milk. Boiling it, keeping aside the cream, making curds, making buttermilk from the special curds from accumulated cream, keeping aside butter and finally making ghee from accumulated butter - these time-consuming activities were a part and parcel of her kitchen work and she was very proud of them. I followed in her footsteps and did it all when she was not around which was rare.
With old age, my mother started finding it difficult to keep up and father advised her to give up Chitale milk. We could buy readymade butter and ghee, he suggested. Sacrilege, she thought and stuck to them. He gave up after repeated attempts to reduce her workload failed.
The quality of Chitale milk has worsened now. The milk is fatty but curds and buttermilk are full of casein. During the rainy season, milk quality goes down. Market grapevine says, they have scaled up and they use automatic machinery to get milk. Their marketing, helpline etc. remain poor.
In the month of May, Chitale milk which I was boiling on the gas stove suddenly turned sour and something snapped in me. I said goodbye!
For the next two and half months, I made trips to an Amul shop I found out nearby, every fortnight and bought 5 or 6 liters of Amul milk in plastic pouches at a time. I also bought cartons of milk. I found that Amul Gold was even more fatty than Chitale milk. It had few takers in our locality. Everyone preferred Amul Taaza, a low-fat variety. Amul shop had lots of milk-based products such as buttermilk, curds, ghee, flavored drinks, ice-cream etc. However, their supply was never assured.
We are used to getting milk delivered at home every day. This man said, Amul was not available with him and he had no substitute for Chitale milk. Amul has its own distribution and selling system and it does not cater to people like him. I had heard of milk delivery apps. I searched and found out that they served Amul Gold or cow's milk or expensive organic milk. Complaints about their delivery were legion.
I realized that the market for home delivery of milk was imperfect.
I contacted our delivery man and asked him to supply Katraj milk every day. Katraj is our local co-op milk collection and delivery dairy and its milk is highly popular among common people. It is not possible to make proper, thick curds or buttermilk from this milk but many brands of these are available in the market. I have started buying them now. I have always liked the taste of Katraj curds though.
Surprisingly, my mother has supported me in this transition. She does not talk of Chitale milk now and we are happy. There is less work in the kitchen and what my father wanted has come about fourteen years after he passed away.
