When the lights go out...

The air has a tinge of moisture. The earth, sensing the impending, lets out a most wondrous smell. The chameleons raise their ever-changing necks to the sky, as if raising a toast to the almighty. The sky returns a nervous smile as the encircling clouds shroud its blue face with a grey veil. Thor chooses to let all and sundry know his power and lets out whiplashes of white streaks across the now grey patch, with vicious cracks sounding across the city. The lights go out, and I walk out lazily to the balcony of my first floor apartment (by the way, the lights just went off now! What a coincidence!) as Dad adds behind me, “The monsoon has finally arrived in Vizag!” I nod in agreement, as the sudden downpour has the unassuming pedestrians running Helter-Skelter (sic, All hail the pseudo-Haddu, soon-to-be pseudo-Bong!), the coconut trees’ branches adding to the numerous sights and sounds of the lashing rain. As it goes in England, in Vizag, too, ‘it doesn’t rain, it pours!’ My favourite season returns, as always, with a loud whack (not always of the door banging, though!)!

With a lot of people getting drenched with the sudden rains, a common cold is pretty common again. It’s one of my old friends, one that stays by me most of the year (a la Mervin Dillon), keeping me, my handkerchiefs (in some cases, the unlucky towel) and the makers of Triaminic Plus busy. One thing one’s advised when he’s caught a cold is to avoid eating ice-cream. But, a food freak (like yours truly) is surely not one to heed such advice and is off for a long-awaited sundae at Jack Frost (real nice place for the best sundaes in town). It’s been over two and a half months since my last visit and over half a dozen since my last dig into that...that...let’s just call it- no-word-for-it sundae called (the?) Chocolate Indulgence. And it’s an indulgence for a reason. One (big fat delicious) slice of chocolate cake, over which is a slab of chocolate ice-cream topped with chocolate chips and (you guessed it right!) chocolate sauce. No more descriptions of creamy, mouth-watering, greed-inducing, fat-rich-but-still-irresistible desserts would have followed had we not been at home now (for charges of being murderous). But, I chose not to have that flavour (took it for Dad, half as good!) and instead chose All Litchis, which was (not totally surprisingly) brilliant as well!

After a (as it is with every Mummy-ke-haath-ka-khana meal) sumptuous dinner, it has become a once-in-a-while practice at home to head for Jack Frost, get four sundaes and rush to the beach to devour them- the moonlight gleaming on the magnificent Bay of Bengal as a cool breeze blows across our (watering near the mouth, and some cream on the nose-bridge) faces. I can’t help but remind myself of that one great original Delhi creation- Nirula’s('s?) very own Nutty Buddy. I comment grudgingly that over a decade, its price has gone up from a modest twenty-two rupees to a (opinionated) hefty fifty-four rupees but it still has that irresistible taste, that same feeling that courses through my taste buds as I crunch through for a bite. Ah, what wonderful times! Nostalgia gives such pleasure, and also such greed! I’d so love it if we were all back in Delhi again. But, my love for the city of destiny (Vizag, for the uninitiated) has grown lately, not enough to match the capital maybe, but still enough to carve its own special space in my (in danger thanks to chocolate overdose!) heart.

Wooh! From the monsoon to a perennial cold, through to some ice-cream and love for cities! Some ride! I need to take a rest...Maybe, just lie down lazily in the moonlight on the beach, with a Chocolate Indulgence in hand...