Novel stuff that invokes curiousity. Eco-friendly too. But is it effective ?

I was at the Nalli's store in T.Nagar with my parents when they were here a few weeks
ago. Like on all their visits to Chennai, they do not miss out on some shopping -mostly
sarees, and this time was no exception.

While my Mom takes her own sweet time selecting a few sarees, me and my Dad are
bored out of our wits. Finally she is done & we move to the cash counter. The bill paid,
I move to the collection counter where they bag the purchases and hand them over
against production of the paid receipt.

I am waiting impatiently to collect our purchases and be gone when I notice a young
kid staring intently at an equipment on the counter. I look at it and find it interesting
enough to take a snap of it.


It is a tape-dispenser from some forgotten era, just that it doesn't dispense cellophane
tape like modern tape-dispensers. Instead it dispenses paper tape that has some kind
of gluey material on one side, which can be activated by applying water to it. So, the
packers cut out strips of the tape & then roll it over the roller (seen at the right-most
end of the equipment) to make it moist and then seal paper covers using this tape.

Pretty cool. And eco-friendly too I guess, when compared to plastic tapes. And, it also
serves as an advertising tool too, since the tape has the store's name on it. But, I did
notice that this tape was not as effective as the plastic one, given the way the packing
guys were struggling to use it.

They would tear off a strip of tape, wet it on the roller and 'try'to seal the paper bag,
but it would come off. They would then wet it again and try once more. I saw them
trying 2-3 times before it would finally work, and even then, the sealing was not even
half as effective as plastic tape.

Still, the equipment did invoke the curiousity of one and all. More so, after they saw
me taking a snap of it. :-)