Guest column | A toast to the summer!
Glasses of lassi seasoned with salt, black pepper, asafoetida, roasted and crushed cumin seeds were guzzled down on hot afternoons, rather than an array of flavoured yogurt
Long ago, when carbonated drinks had not flooded the markets, children relied on desi drinks to quench their insatiable summer thirst.
Spending their summer breaks reading series such as the Famous Five, Secret Seven and Trixie Belden where the protagonists would go on a picnic with their baskets laden with cucumber sandwiches and bottles of lemonade on clear summer days, they gratified themselves with shikanjvi or nimbupaani to beat the heat.
The children of the house would spend their evenings sprinkling water on khus curtains and brick-lined courtyards, and were rewarded with tall glasses of rose sherbets, which were either home-made (prepared with desi gulab concentrate) or readymade (diluted Rooh Afza).
Earlier, only limited flavours of milk shake such as mango, banana, vanilla or chocolate were available. Nowadays, children have unlimited choices, they get to choose between exotic tropical flavours such as kiwi, passion fruit, dragon fruit or continental ones such as blueberry, raspberry, strawberry and what not. In the absence of Tetra Pak and bottled fruit juices, crushed ice slushes and slurpees, home-made seasonal fruit juice concentrates such as aam panna, bael sherbet, sugarcane juice flavoured with ginger and rock salt and some rare delicacies such as brahmi, jamun and phalsa sherbet helped keep cool.
Glasses of lassi seasoned with salt, black pepper, asafetida, roasted and crushed cumin seeds were guzzled down on hot afternoons, rather than an array of flavoured yogurt. In those days of yore, thousands of varieties and flavours of ice creams, Italian granita and sorbets in fancy parlours had not yet marred the pleasure offered by restricted flavours of barf ka gola or chuskis dipped in red, green and yellow syrups or even the humble orange bar or mango duet bought off street vendors.
The family looked forward to the rare days when summer specialties such as gond katira shikanji, sattu and thandai were served. As packaged coconut water had not replaced the real deal, people looked forward to their visits to coastal cities. Those were the days when sweet and sour jaljeera with mint and boondi had not been elbowed out by its fancier cousin, the mojito, and when the humble bantewali bottle was a hit among teenagers, who now gravitate towards iced tea with its assorted variants: lemon, mint and peach.
I am not a believer of the cliché ‘old is gold’. However, I am a firm believer that things should not be ruled out just because they are old. So, it is time to dig out those long-lost recipes and raise a healthy and refreshing toast to beat the summer heat!
sonrok15@gmail.com
The writer is an associate professor at SD College, Ambala Cantt