Today, at 2.00pm, if I ask you to go out in the sun to do some work....you'll curse me like anything. All we want in these punishing summer days is to be inside....all the time. But think about this...do you remember those wonderful days when the school bells used to ring in the afternoon for you to fly off.....No matter how hot it was outside, you just ran towards the school gate with the overwhelming levels of enthusiasm. And in that ravishing heat, before you get on the school bus , or whatever other mode of commuting, you always wanted to go to that little booth, right across the street in front of the school gate. The booth that was always crowded with tiny toddlers with although red but bright faces, the booth with super sonic levels of noise because of kids shouting to the vendor about their favorite flavors, The booth that ended many desperate cravings...yes that's right...It's the Ice cream booth.
When i think about that time today, it makes me wonder, was it the heat that pulled all of us towards that little stall of heaven, or was it just pure love for those super cool, terribly shaped "Orange Bars" as we knew them? If you think about it, it is simply impossible to justify the level of content that one had after having one of those Orange bars for nothing but 50 paise. Just try and compare that level of satisfaction to the one you get after you have your favorite flavor at Baskin Robbins today....it is nowhere close to it. It was altogether a different feeling coming back home, with a couple of orange drops on your bright white shirt and an orange tongue that you have been flaunting throughout your way home. No wonder these ice candies are so close to my heart. The bond was crafted 20 years ago.
Every second or third day, my brother calls me up around 7 in the evening on his way back home from work and asks me which ice cream do i wanna have....and my answer is "It has to be an ice candy bar". Now initially there were only orange and mango, but these days we get so many options that it is so difficult to resist them...lime, raspberry, black current...and believe it or not "jaljeera". Both of us have become such huge fans of the ice candies now that our final meal of the day feels incomplete without putting a full stop to it with one, sometimes two ice candy bars.
The Ice candies totally are the best solution to the Delhi heat and I really cannot imagine a summer without them...What say??
