Goodbye To Tupperware

You’ll find Tupperware in the strangest of places. In my house, the most conspicuous piece, the one I see everyday, is in my bathroom. Don’t judge. Let me explain.

I may sound a bit like a Tupperware nerd when I say this, but the Tupperware in my loo is from their ‘bowled over’ collection. It’s a set of four small bowls that come with lids. Their use in the washroom? Just like every other Indian woman, I, too, have my own set of ‘desi’ face packs that I lather on my face every weekend to have some semblance of a beauty regimen. Although marketed as a food container, my homemade face packs also entail a concoction of food items: gram flour, yoghurt and honey. So, to preserve the sanctity of these ingredients, the only suitable storage container for them is Tupperware.

Although, truth be told, Tupperware, in India at least, is used for various other things apart from storing food. From keeping assorted buttons, threads and needles to doubling up as a box to store loose bandages and medicines, Tupperware has been an iconic storage box. From school tiffins to piles of Tupperware stacked in the fridge full of leftovers, this iconic American brand is as Indian as it gets in terms of its versatility and bizarre uses in the Indian household.

‘These Godforsaken Dabbas’

Unfortunately, Tupperware has filed for bankruptcy. I’d like to believe that’s not because of my curses. I mean, there’s just something with the Tupperware lids. They just refuse to fit. They will always almost close but never fully. And if, god forbid, they do close, it’s shut so tight that by the time you end up opening the Tupperware box, the contents of the said container will be flying out in the process of opening it. Every time this has happened, I’ve uttered the choicest of curses to the company that made these “godforsaken plastic dabbas”.

Plastic itself, the material brand Tupperware was built on, is now taboo. Concerns around micro plastics leaching into our foods when we keep our food stored in them or heat them in the microwave has led many people to switch to stainless steel and glass containers. So, what is this sadness about Tupperware shutting shop?

Nostalgia. There was just something about growing up in the 90s that made us millennials feel so attached to things that were so central to our daily existence but somehow now are dispensable and forgotten. We went from tapes to CDs to iPods to Spotify. We went from VCR to cable TV to OTT platforms. We went from landlines to cordless phones to mobile phones to AI-powered Apple Vision pros and robots. Losing Tupperware is another piece of the Jenga falling. Eventually, the whole world we knew and grew up in will fall and be forgotten. Personally, to me that’s tragic.

Those Tupperware Parties

I wonder how women who hosted Tupperware parties to market their products — a genius marketing move in the 80s and 90s that led to the company’s success — feel about the company filing for bankruptcy. I remember as a child going to a friend’s house whose mother sold Tupperware. Picture a typical Punjabi household with Punjabi aunties discussing Tupperware in Punjabi. While one complained about turmeric and tomato curry stains not leaving the plastic containers, another aunty advised dipping the containers in water with baking soda and vinegar overnight to remove the stains and smells from the containers. But pretty much everyone swore by how Tupperware made their lives easy by storing and freezing an entire week’s worth of food in these boxes. All the aunties broke into a riotous laugh over the fact that none of their husbands and in-laws had so far figured out that they weren’t offering them freshly made food. One aunty also offered a little life hack, of storing kneaded and rolled-out dough for flatbreads with aluminium foil or butter paper between each rolled-out ‘roti’ and then taking them out when needed to be heated straight on the griddle. She swore that the rotis would remain fresh in these Tupperware boxes and the flatbreads would fluff up to become the softest ‘phulkas’.

 I, too, have to admit that I think twice before buying a plastic container for storing my food. I, too, have joined the bandwagon of healthy, conscious, sustainable living. Because it is the right way to live. But Tupperware is a piece of my childhood. I’ll probably keep my ‘bowled over’ collection and a few other boxes that I have. Perhaps, one day these will be collector’s items. 

(Zainab Sikander is a political analyst and columnist covering Indian politics since the last decade. She’s an avid traveller and a bona-fide foodie.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author