All together, now!

In 1958, the Tamil Nadu government got into the business of supplying milk to the citizens of the state, and in 1965 it took control of all the milk producers' co-operatives across the state.  It was much later that it took on a more 'corporate' form, with the Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers' Federation Limited being formally registered in August 1981. Since then, the TNCMPFL has been marketing its products under the Aavin brand. While it started off with processed milk, today, the brand covers a range of milk products, many of which have been sold through small outlets across the city (and state). 

Aavin has been on a spree of modernisation over the past few months. Old parlours are being refurbished and jazzed up. Play-areas, air-conditioning and brightly lit parlours seem to be the new normal, as Aavin tries to catch up market share in categories like ice-cream, flavoured milk and sweets. In the process, it is also changing a few of the bunks which were the main points of sale for these products. Happened to catch one such bunk in transition - which, by the way, is the 'Theme of the Day' for the city photobloggers today*.

No idea why this Aavin booth had to be moved from wherever it was, but looks like it just needs a few people to transfer it to wherever it has to go to!

*If you would like to see how this theme is interpreted around the world, go here

Three-card trick

Through most of the '70s, even well into the '80s, it was not uncommon to find cows and buffalos being led from street to street by the local milkman. Milk was fresh, straight from the udders and you could feel the warmth spread through the vessel as the milkman poured out your requirement. It was a leap, not merely of faith, but of several degrees of temperature, when Aavin began regular supply of milk through the city sometime in the '70s. Chilled bottles with candy-stripe tinfoil caps would be delivered at a milk booth, twice a day; folks from the neighbouring streets would have to come to the booth and pick-up their quota. Once you made a decision on how much milk you needed every day and how you wanted it split between the morning and the afternoon deliveries, you had to live with that decision for the rest of your life - or that is how it seemed to be.

Milk bottles gave way to half- and one-litre sachets; more choices came by. Toned, double-toned and low-fat varieties were added. More automatic vending machines sprung up. The gathering of housewives and servants at the milk booth of an afternoon gave way to aggregators picking up volumes on behalf of their customers; the new age milkmen, supplying sachets at your door, for a fee. With the state loosening its monopoly on milk in the late '90s, private dairies increased the choices available. Through it all, Aavin's milk-card remained a prize; with a discount of close to 15% being given to a card-holder, it made sense to buy a card. In the past, being allowed to buy one was the result of reams of documents and several 'inspections' and 'verifications'. You had to trade off the guarantee of supply (which the milkman was naturally very bad at) against the flexibility of your need (which Aavin seemed to consider an act of treason). And then the deal was "no card, no milk". But with Aavin simplifying the procedures significantly, the 15% discount looks very inviting. Even after the milkman's fee, you have something left over.

The dates for buying / renewing milk cards vary from locality to locality. Yesterday was our turn; our milkman came up and told us that there were new cards available at our booth, all we had to do was go there with proof of residence and we'd get our cards. And so, here I am, three years after having moved into my current flat, with the first set of my milk-cards!