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“Chai kaisi loge aap?” asked my new kitchen help.
Please don’t put sugar. I don’t like it sweet. Besides I am trying to cut down on the white poison and lose some weight in the bargain? Was it that? Asked a voice from inside as I sipped my tea. I found myself getting lost in my thoughts as to when did I start disliking sugar? Did I really hate the taste?
Actually never.
For a child born with a sweet tooth and the taste nurtured further by being offered more of it in forms of hot jalebis, Fresh Barfi, Gajjar ka halwa, palatable Gulab jamuns ,Rasgulla , Imarti , balusahi ,ghewar (names of common famous North Indian sweets) just name it and I think I had tasted it. More on the platter more habituated you are and acquire the love for it. It gets permanently ingrained in one’s taste buds . My dad loved sweets and so did I. The fridge had to compulsorily have his favorite box of Kalakand and I gorged on Rabri and white rasgullas. We did not share them and it was always followed by a ceremonial cup of strong tea and a smoke.
We would chat briefly in the middle of the day while I would be studying and he would have just come home to fetch something.
Our breathing moments of the day. Sweets energized us both and helped us maintain our grind. We would crib a little and talk a little. He would often bring in neighbors or friends and the chai business was a regular routine. It just energized the house with laughter, cheer and joy. I blackmailed him often not to scold me if I fared poorly in my exams for he disturbed me so many times. He never did and I never fared badly. The routine continued for as long as I remember except when I went to the boarding for many years in a row. Every time I returned the regimen resumed till our sweets finished and we were ready to buy more of them again. My mother threatened us both with dire consequences of diabetes and both of us would mock her and utter “seriously? “
The sessions discontinued after dad’s death 9 yrs ago. I have learnt to have my tea alone and sugar free over the years. Even if I pass by the same sweet shops same kalakand and rabri fails to lure me into buying them so much so that gradually I stopped buying them .I have made myself believe now that I may have diabetes and in the theory of white poison . I have reflected on the health hazards of sweets a common junk food. As I sat next to the lake remembering and choking silently on your probable 71st b’day, I felt a familiar craving as I thought of you . The strong urge to relive those moments and cherish that meetha taste once more. I wondered what you would have wanted me to do?
Celebrate rather than sulk.
Live, love and laugh ….and have more of those chai and sweet moments with those left behind. Magic is when you start feeling it happen to you. All about belief.I am heading to the sweetshop to pick up kalakand for myself after years and favorite sweets for the kids. I know they will ask me what I got for them and I just want to smile and recreate that magic in the house as I ask them “ Kuch meetha ho jaye!
“Hoping you are rested and in peace !
