Remember that timeless ghazal – Ye daulat bhi le lo, yeh shohrat bhi le lo …? Well this blog is going to take you on that beautiful path again albeit instead of monsoon the season in question is summer!

Rewind to your childhood summers – besides the swinging on trees, sleeping on the terrace counting the stars, playing gilli-danda, stapoo et al; what other memories do you recall? Gorging on mangoes; the women of the household laying snacks, pickles and spices to soak in the sun on the terrace; sucking on chuski pops; trying to eat as many buddhi ke baal as possible…the list is endless isn’t it?

As always, food forms a core part of our childhood moments. So let’s take you on a trip to memory lane and capture some rays of sunshine from your childhood –

Mangoes…

The primary memory of our childhood summers pertains to the King of Fruits, doesn’t it? Every mango creates a story starting from its unripe stage to the lusciously sweet slices on our plate … each bite creates a khatta-meetha (sweet-sour) magical moment.

Remember collecting kairis (unripe mangoes) from the mangrove and then running home where your mom served slices to you with salt and chilli powder sprinkled on it? Then again the exhilaration when Papa bought a basket of mangoes and kept them below the cot – you’d hungrily wait for them to ripen. And post the first ripened mango being offered to God how all family members would sit and devour the entire basket!

Lip-smacking snacks drying on the terrace

Today khakhras, wafers and papads are available across the year on the shelves of grocery shops. But during those days the women of the household used to slog and prepare khakhras, papads, potato and sago katri (wafers) et al. and then lay the enticing spread on the terrace for them to soak in the sun; and no prizes for guessing who was given the oh-so-important responsibility of keeping an eye to ensure that birds, squirrels or worse monkeys didn’t demolish these painstakingly prepared goodies! 

The rich pickle spread

Summers were also when mangoes being in abundance pickles were prepared and they too were laid out on the terrace for the customary ‘dhoop shekai’ (sun soaking). Remember how you used to creep up and sneak away a piece of the pickled mango? How inviting and delicious the barnis (jars) of chundo, gol keri, murabbo, gunda, khaati keri et al used to look in the pantry and how generously your mom or granny shared it with the neighbours and how stressed you’d be that there’d not be any left for you!

Yummy golas, chuski pops and kulfis

Diet sugar-free ice-cream was totally unheard of … those were the days of chuski pops (coloured and flavoured sugary icy sticks), golas and kulfis…available at a pittance (from your pocket money) but when it came to taste they were worth their price in gold!

The evergreen sugarcane juice

Who doesn’t remember being sent off by mom with forty rupees and a steel tumbler to fetch eight glasses of ganne ka ras for the family to quench their parched throats on sultry summer afternoons. 

Well we could go on and on, couldn’t we? But … laut aao apni bachpan ki galiyo se! 

How about using ‘stay at home’ to create such awesome summer food memories for your child?