As a young primary grader, I didn't know that you could buy ice cream sticks from the store. I used to think, you need to eat ice creams and collect all the sticks. (if you do go down this way, please wash them before storing)
Whenever the craft teacher at our school asked us to bring ice cream sticks for an activity, I used to look into my stash of used sticks and pick the ones which looked presentable.
I grew up a bit and got to know you can buy these at the stationary anyways. No point storing the sticks.
Eating ice cream wasn't an easy task back then. As much as I liked it, I could almost never handle the ice cream correctly without getting it on my clothes. It used to inevitably melt and drip on my t shirt.
Worse, I didn't know that you're supposed to eat from both sides of the stick equally, otherwise one side gets heavier and falls down.
As a result, I used to stick with ice cream cups as a child. It was then I discovered that for some mysterious reason, strawberry flavor was available only in cups, not sticks or cones. It tasted good, or atleast better than over-sweetened vanilla or chocolate.
I was in 3rd class when I discovered that they sold cola flavored ice cream in my school canteen. Soon after, on my daily visit to the booth near my home, I saw I could buy cola flavored ice cream there too. That was the summer when I consumed ice cream the most.
Cola flavor wasn't available in cups, so I had to learn how to use the stick. I faintly remember dropping my cola ice cream from the stick initially, but later learnt that I should eat from both sides of the stick alternatively. Its even better if I keep my other hand underneath the ice cream just in case the ice slab decides to slip off.
And thus, I stopped relying on ice cream cups.
It only took 2 summers for me to get bored of cola. I switched to having cones. Turned out, these were much easier to handle.
I initially ate chocolate. Thats the only flavor they sold, wasn't it?
Soon after, I discovered butterscotch. And thats when I truly discovered the taste I like. Or so I thought.
I've been eating butterscotch ever since. Its the only flavor I prefer when I have to grab an ice cream. I'm not averse to other flavors, but I really won't feel having missed out on something if you were to have a chocobar without sharing with me.
And yet, butterscotch doesn't exactly feel 100% the way I want.
During Covid-19, we were too afraid to step outside the house. Social distancing, isolation and avoiding practically anything from outside the house - I didn't have ice cream that year.
Being locked up inside the house with no access to outer world, I had faintly thought about a little scheme that could skyrocket ice cream sales.
The (stupid) plan was that if companies started fortifying ice creams with vitamin D, it could generate a greater demand among consumers. There is widespread vitamin D deficiency among urban working class. During summers, most people dare not step outside their houses. In such a setting, vitamin D flavored ice cream could cool them down and also give a regular shot of vitamin D.
That was maybe the wackiest ice cream idea I've ever had.
In the summer of 2022, I caught the habbit of drinking cold coffee. I had already spent the preceeding winter drinking chilled black coffee.
I used to purchase bricks of vanilla ice cream and store them in the freezer. Used to scoop out whenever I needed ice cream for my cold coffee.
An year later, in the summer of 2023, I was an intern at a company. They had a coffee machine in the cafeteria, but it was for hot coffee. Not cold.
I decided I could mix and match. They used to stock Nescafe's chilled latte in their refrigerator. And they had these vanilla ice cream cups in their deep freeze.
I used to pour out the latte in a cup and scoop out ice cream into the same cup. And thus, I got my (makeshift) cold coffee with ice cream and I once again used these ice cream cups.
Back to where we started?
I haven't had much ice cream after that summer. It usually was a butterscotch cone shared with her.
In a story I wrote during Covid lockdown, a young couple was at an ice cream parlour having their first ice cream together. The boy had no specific preference so the girl gets him strawberry ice cream.
They were sitting beside the ice cream parlour on a wooden bench, when the girl lands a surprise kiss on the boy's cheek. There, the boy realizes that the ice cream flavor doesn't matter. Ice cream was just an excuse. What really matters is something else.
We stopped at the ice cream parlor.
"Which one would you like to have?", I asked him.
"Whichever you have."
"Two strawberry cones, please!"
We sat on the wooden bench behind the ice cream parlor. The sun was setting, and I knew, this moment won't come ever again.
I leaned over to Miller's side and kissed him on the cheek.
Like everything else I've had a past life with, I come to know what matters. Its really not butterscotch. Its the person who shares her warm and sweet kiss with me.