India, May 17 -- Are your stainless-steel thalis and katoris a bore? No, heavens, no! Don't throw them away. Let me tell you why. They may have an engraving that says a name, dot-graven discreetly, of your ancestor, or someone who gifted it to your forbearer. In any case, imagine the generations of meals that have been served in and polished off them! They hold the memory of our foods and fads, our eating wisdom, or our gluttonous foolishnesses. Brass tumblers, copper ladles, cracked but defiantly holding out, old china, spoons now twisted and tarnished but with enamel work on them, blackened kadhais in which succulent curries have been made over the decades, (remember the old brass vessels which kalai-walas used to refresh for you ? ), b...