Deep inside the narrow, winding lanes of Delhi Gate, in a dark, dingy shop in Kasera Bazaar that could easily pass off as an abandoned warehouse, cousins Amin, in his 70s, and Abid await clients to polish their copper or brass utensils.

What appeared to be an under-construction shop where discarded metal sheets, pots and wires, old pieces of cloth, blowers and a lot of cotton lay scattered around, and a brick staircase snakes its way to an upper storey was, in fact, the cousins’ workshop, or studio in more contemporary terms, where they are skillfully keeping the dying art of kalai, or polishing or tin-coating, alive.

Abid and Amin are two of the only half a dozen kalaiwalas left in town still engaged in this centuries-old practice.

This art has existed ever since food was cooked and consumed in copper and brass utensils. It’s essentially the practice of coating copper or brass with tin, and its history finds a mention in various historical texts such as Ain-i-Akbari and some from even much earlier.

However, as the world modernised, copper and brass utensils have to a large extent been replaced by plastic, aluminum and stainless steel, and with them the art of kalai is also dying a slow death. But the seventh-generation kalaigar or kalaiwalas, Amin and Abid, haven’t lost hope. They say they’re still in business and will continue to be till there are people around who use copper and brass utensils for their health benefits.

Amin explains that cooking in a copper or brass pot that has been coated with tin (kalai) filters the food and prevents it from germs. Abid chips in that as per hakeems, eating food cooked in such a vessel is beneficial for the brain and stomach.

“Most of the material we use for kalai is used in hikmat, even the acid used for cleaning the vessels,” he tells Dawn.

The cousins explain that their ancestors started practicing the art around 350 years ago from the same bazaar they’re in now, though they kept shifting from one shop to another. “The shop we have now is around 40 years old. And our family has been offering the service for as long as it’s existed,” says Amin.

Abid then explains the process of kalai, and a short while later also demonstrates it when an elderly customer arrives to get his copper glass tin-coated. A shallow little pit has been dug in the ground to burn coal in and an equally small, temporary blast furnace blows air on the coal. “The first step is to clean the utensil with water mixed with caustic soda. After the cleaning, the vessel is heated on burning coal for a couple of minutes; the duration of the heating depends on the kind of vessel. After the vessel turns hot enough, tin in the form of tiny strips that melt instantly is applied to it evenly with a thick cotton swab and the naushadar powder (ammonium chloride) sprinkled over it. Finally, the vessel is dipped in cold water to cool it off.”

As Abid applied the tin and ammonium chloride to the copper glass, it produced a white smoke with an unpleasant odour of ammonia, and eventually created a shiny silver layer on the container. He also stresses that this process has to be repeated at least twice a year on any vessel used in daily routine, as brass and copper can react with the acids in food and prove hazardous to health if not ‘tinned’ on time.

The cousins say the centuries-old tradition of kalai started witnessing a decline when the cheaper aluminum, non-stick and stainless steel utensils were introduced in the market, and people found brass and copper expensive. And now, there are only a handful of men, including this duo, still practicing this art. “Only those who can financially afford to use these utensils for cooking seek our services,” says Abid, while Amin adds that their work slightly declined by 10 per cent when coronavirus broke out.

The elder of the two says their job is unstable: some days it keeps them occupied all day, while on others they’re sitting idle for hours.

“Someone who starts from scratch will take at least 15 to 20 years to perfect this skill; it’s very tough, as you have to be careful about the amount of heat to be given to a utensil as well as the cleaning process at the end. We have been at it since childhood, we used to sit with our fathers and grandfather and practice for years. At that time, there was so much of this work that we wouldn’t see our father for days, sometimes not even on Eid. He was seldom home.”

He, however, realises this family tradition is going to end with the two of them, as their children had chosen other fields and were not interested in acquiring this skill. “They’re educated so they turned to other things, we were uneducated so we joined our fathers. Though we have assistants working with us, but we’d probably be the last ones from our family practicing kalai. It’s not that people have stopped using these utensils, but our kids are just not interested.”

Abid says all major hotels and restaurants in the city use brass and copper vessels for cooking, and as long as they’re being used, people like him will remain in business.

“The food cooked in these pots is tastier, cleaner and more hygienic. The food authority also checks commercial kitchens and imposes fines if the tinning on any utensil is found wearing off.”

Now, in Kasera Bazaar, only five or six of the over 120 shops sell copper and brass utensils, which were once the only kind of metal available here.

“Their usage has declined over the years because people have forgotten about them and the new generation isn’t aware of them at all. Our shop is open from 10am to Maghrib prayers, but if we have enough work we can sit all night too,” the veteran signs off.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2022