- THE TRAY Dearfriends,
Today my posting is about tray.Originally the tray might have been used for keeping papers, files etc. in theoffices. It was a furniture item over the table. The tray kept over the table,made the top of the table appear neat and tidy in the offices. It also ensuredsafety of papers. The office trays, were initiallymade of wood had a holder either with metal or with side cutting for fingergrip for holding and moving to sections. Most trays were provided with CLIP tohold papers. This ensured especially very thin papers flying when fan speedincreased in the room. A nostalgic lookin to tray. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 8-1-2022. 1. Tray- very old furniture Even in my boy hood days I had seentray in home temple Sreekaryam office and in the local library. Sree karyamoffice was having two trays for keeping daily registers and papers to be sentto Main office. Library too had two trays over the librarian table. Librarian used one of the trays forletters received and replied for dispatch while another one was used forkeeping issue register etc. On those days tables were provided with thick cottontablecloth. I assisted the librarian forvery long time in the paper works. I had a very good handwriting on those days. 2. Tray for transferring of registers and files Trays were a common furniture itemin offices. Files and registers wereplaced in trays and in the trays they were taken from staff tables to Headclerk and after his verification submitted to officers. After officer hascleared the files, they were taken back to Head clerk’s table and again sent tostaff after his study. Daily tapals,representations, etc. are received and kept on tray. The position of tray andits use has least changed in spite of all COMPUTERIZATION. Wherever hard copy is kept, trays are there. Onlything material has changed to steel / fiber. 3. Sub registrar office. In state government one of thefamiliar places where large number of hard copies handled, having trays in allstaff tables and sub registrar table is the land registration office. All stategovernment offices use trays. 4. The post office The post office has more use oftrays for keeping the postal items received for dispatching, keepingrequisitions for deposits, sorting, delivery etc. The attendance register isstill a hard copy. The central government offices also make use of trays, but quantityis lesser now. In place of three trays earlier, now there are two. 5. Tray- extended use From the very beginning trays are usedin hospitals for keeping collected sample of blood, urine, injection needlesetc. This ensures safety of the items.The hospital trays have more partitions for additional safety of the items kept.The lab technician and nurses have trays with partitions. 4a. Schools and trays Most of the schools conductedpractical in the classroom, and the items were brought in a tray to classroomon those days from the lab. If the number of items were more we were happiersince students are more interested in practical. 4b. Colleges and trays In colleges in the lab smallpractical items were given in tray to students so that falling/spilling might notbe there. But still many used to spill mercury (liquid metal) etc. On thosedays I had no information about the poisonous effect of mercury. Our records were kept in tray forchecking the results by the lab in charge over his table. After his checking itwas kept on another tray. The most important, the practicalexamination question papers were kept upside down after preparing and MIXING ina tray. As per serialnumber we had to take the one on the top, the lucky ones used to geteither easy questions or topics where 100% marks could get on correct answering(Heat is a subject more than 70-75 % marks might not be given for the correctanswering). Unfortunate, I got a question on Heat in the practical examination!!! 6. Trays- made of steel ith the coming up of steel furniture,trays in office also started appearing in steel painted in dark green color. The Godrej furniture section had their traywith clip in dark green color/maroon color. Having a fancy I purchased one in1967. Today too I have the same, keeping my small tool items in it. I havenot even repainted the tray. Some workers come empty handed knowing I have thetools tray and use the tools from it for their work. 7. Fiber Trays Along with fiber items, fiber traysalso appeared. Now the shops have trays in different sizes for different uses.They find their application in homes, shops and offices. Shops make use oftrays more. Milk venders carry packet milk in trays and transport in trays.Most of the vegetables are kept in fiber trays now. Similarly the fruit trays.Bigger markets use fiber trays to a great extent for keeping fruits, vegetablesetc. Fiber trays have become acompliment item during marriage. The marriage invitation is kept on fiber tray,and tray need not be returned. These trays have only borders. Metal trays instainless steel and Aluminium are used in kitchen to keep oil cans. For guestssnacks are served in nice looking trays. While a boy come with his parentsto see the girl for marriage, girl serves the coffee/tea to the boy’s sidekeeping the glasses on a nice looking fiber tray. In marriage functionstoffees, chocolates, flowers, sandal wood paste etc. are kept in reception in anew fiber tray/ stainless steel tray. Stainless steel trays Extending to the use in kitchen,stainless steel trays have appeared in the market. They find maximumapplication in the kitchen than in the office. Most women prefer them to keep oils and sundry items etc. However theyare also used in hospitals nowadays by nurses to carry things. 9. Storing and trays The trays have excellent use instoreroom attached to kitchen for neatly keeping provision items. Medical shopskeeps trays with lesser width, with a list of items kept inside are pasted onthe front side on the trays and kept on shelf. They keep trays of different colorsfor further identification. Some medical shops keep tablets and capsules inalphabetical order in trays.Even in the living room andbedrooms trays help a lot. Many keep spectacles, keys, Books, daily usingpurse, mobiles etc. on a tray kept over the table in the living room. In thebedroom for keeping water and emergency medicines like amrutanjan, vicks, andtorchlight, a small tray is kept by many by the bed side. Irrespective of age mobilephone is kept by bed side. Otherwise many cannot get sleep. Bathroom items are kept on openshelf in different trays. In work area, cleaning items, bleaching powder etc.are kept in plastic trays on the open shelves. 10. Personal office room and trays. Those having personal office roomin residences for keeping Xerox papers, important tapals received, warrantycards etc. tray is helpful. When sideshelf is separately provided, tray finds its place over side shelf. Leisuretime they are transferred to files. 11. Table drawer A tray is somewhat identical to atable drawer. Whether tray had its beginning from table drawer is aninteresting thing to pond over. 12. Table tops. The first improvement in tabletopwas provision of thick glass over it. Tablecloth gradually changed to rexin fromcotton. Laminated topping was another improvementwith glass above it. For some time transparent PVC was provided with clipping,and it avoided the problem of breakage of glass. Now with tough durable glass,the glass has come back in officer’s table over it. For keeping immediatereference items papers are below the glass. Now most officers have side rackand position of tray has changed over to side rack top. 13. Tray materials Now the offices have rather thanwooden trays, trays using laminated wood or processed wood or quality plywood. Fibertrays have lost their prominence in office after the shops started using it for all purposes 14 Trays near shops in temples. Trays are kept by shopkeepers nearthe temple keeping all offering items. Normally the shopkeepers ask thedevotees take the required items near temples. 15. Prominence of trays Materials may change, size maychange, but trays might remain. In the near future it will not become obsolete.Trays have many more uses not told in this posting. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thatha_patty+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. 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