Found this to be a stunningly written and researched piece! Ice is one of my pet peeves especially since the city I live in (Chennai) has a building called Ice House, which was built by an American businessman, Frederic Tudor (with the help of the British) to export and store… ice that the British could drink in their private clubs.

Of course, American frozen water was too expensive for the locals who were already reeling from other taxes and, well, colonialism. Before the British could enjoy their imported ice, the labourers working under sub-human conditions had to cut ice blocks into pieces and distribute them. Ice was a natural commodity turned into a luxury that demarcated the colonials from the colonised space.

There were ice houses in Bombay and Calcutta as well, but only the one in Chennai still stands, remodelled into Vivekanandar Illam.

anyway, read this piece!