I SCREAM...wheres my ice-cream?

We all probably share the same childhood fantasy of multicolour icecream cones rotating in our dreams. Right from my childhood, if there was something i have been madly in love with, it was ice cream. Vanilla, chocolate, pista, strawberry, butter-scotch- name the flavor, i have eaten loads of it. It was simple cones and sticks first, which later got promoted to softy cones, then to sundaes and now i simply cannot resist the looks of that red cherry atop a tall glass of colored, textured sundae. Icecreams during our childhood were limited to a 80 km up and down trip to Arasan Icecreams, Tirunelveli. The plain vanilla served on a fish shaped glass bowl, the cassatta slice with a cherry topping and the yummy tutti-frutti were my personal favorites. I can simply keep on eating four or five at a stretch, so next time someone planning for a meet in Arasan, Tirunelveli, have all your credit cards handy!

When my base changed from Tirunelveli to Tiruchirapalli, it was a nightmare, i could not locate THE best icecream shop. After so many trial and errors and horrifying 'taste' experiments, i finally located my favorite hot spot- Sea Kings Icecreams near Holy Cross College. I used to ride 30 minutes up and down my rattling scooty for a falooda and a peach melba! I fell in love with the ambience and the taste, but sea kings being the top-end, i tried the lower end best, Michael's too. A FS ( Fruit Salad) cost Rs.3 then, i don't know how much it is now, and i order one after the other after the other, until the waiter keeps standing near me to see what i need! I usually end up eating 5 or 6 and would be smiling at the obscenities the waiter must be hideously yelling, mentally at me! Then came the AM ( After Marriage) of my life, when my eating and purchasing capabilities depended on my best-half's wallet. My PM ( Pre Marriage) days were filled with ice creams and chocolates but sadly, the AM days are devoid of many such trifle happiness. Not that i am forbidden from eating them, but simply because, if i eat, my kids eat and they end up wrecking one week of happiness in long Doctor visits and sickness. Luckily for me, Baskin Robbins opened a parlour in Trichy, but as our family were probably one of the few patrons of the shop, it was closed within a year.

Happy to be here in Saudi Arabia, where Baskin Robbins smiles at you at every street corner, so do KFC, Mac and Pizza Hut. On a strict diet regimen, i have gained only 6 kgs per year as against many of my peers here, who gain 10 to 15 kgs average per year. After sincere after thoughts and before thoughts, i finally decided to let go of my ice cream mania for good, just to save my cot, sofa and other chairs that were begging me to get rid of a good 20 kgs. I am glad i have saved them all from breaking, but i have not succeeded in saving my heart that is all broken over missing my very berry strawberry and banana royale sundae. Some day i would love to just forget all the fuss of dieting, over weight, weight loss program and all blah blahs and dig into my favorite cone:) Oh my...talking volumes of ice creams and i forgot my all time favorite? Here is one ice cream to die for or even to kill for- Fried Icecream from China Town Restaurant, Chennai. I cannot resist the fatal temptation, a cocktail of hot fried icecream that melts ooooooooh sooo cooooooool in your mouth. It was introduced by a friend accidentally and poor lady, she was forced to shell out a fortune paying for all the three plates i had! That was probably the last treat she ever gave me and i pity her now;)

And my new craze here has been the mango flavoured mini-melts, little balls of mango icecream that linger on your taste buds even for a few hours. Having resisted and resisted the evil designs and lurid pulls of the bewitching ice creams, now i think "enough is enough". I am not going to worry about weight gain or weight loss. Does it matter more than a cup of softy swirled with strawberry sauce? No, definitely! I close my eyes and the visions of icecreams dance through the closed eyelids- I simply cannot resist one little ice cream this time. After all, one little cone will not do much of a harm, is it?