Message in a bottle

Some time back reader Rashid S. Medora of Ahmedabad had sent Parsiana an e-mail describing "an odd (torpedo) shaped aerated waters bottle” dating a century-and-a-half ago which he had seen at the home of his friends Mehru and Hector Karanjawala in Bombay. He wrote: "The bottle is neither like the old thick heavy bottles with a marble inside to act as a stopper nor like the present bottles with a crown cork. As the bottom of the bottle is round, it cannot stand up. The following writing is embossed on the bottle: ‘Muncherjee/ Sorabjee/ Ahmedabad/ 1857/ Superior/ Aerated Waters.’”

The 150-year-old torpedo shaped aerated waters bottle

In a footnote Medora added that Karanjawala is the "great, great grandson of Muncherjee Sorabjee (Karanja-wala), the third Parsi who is said to have come to Ahmedabad, with his wife Soonabai, in 1818. It is very creditable that in those days, within about 40 years of coming to Ahmedabad, Muncherjee had put up an aerated waters factory and seems to have imported bottles with his name thereon.”