Popsicles are Forever

Do colourful, icy popsicles take you back to sticky, hot, summer afternoons of your childhood? If it does, this post is bound to take you down memory lane to the good ol' days of happiness, innocence and ignorant bliss! Even if popsicles don't ring a nostalgic bell in your mind, this post is bound to pull at all the right cords in your sugar-addicted soul.

Before we fall into a nostalgic coma, lets talk about what popsicles actually are. A popsicle, ice candy, ice lolly, ice cream stick, freeze pop, ice block, icy pole, chihiro or ice pop is a water-based frozen dessert. It is made by freezing flavored liquid, such as fruit juice around a stick. Artificial food colouring and flavouring substances are very commonly used to give the brightness and sweetness so reminiscent of popsicles.

Growing up in an all-girls' school in Kolkata, popsicles were known as ice cream sticks (EVEN when they were non-dairy ice lollies) and the absolute trademark flavour that all students of my school were connoisseurs of was the humble 'Orange Stick'. Every lunch break at exactly 11:45, a horde of schoolgirls would rush downstairs to the field (or 'garden' as we called it) to queue in front of the little red Quality Walls cart and demand orange sticks worth just Rs 5 from a sullen old man in a red and white striped shirt. It seems to be a very small treat, but ah!, one who hasn't felt the joy of ripping open that orange wrapper and setting thirsty eyes on the unnaturally bright orange lolly, will never know what they have missed.

Once you are done feasting on the bright, colourful appearance of the popsicles, the fruity smell will surely made your mouth water. After the first lick assaults your senses with sweetness and tang, it becomes a race to make the yummy treat last, as you slurp away at the crunchy iciness while it threatens to melts into a syrupy mess which make your fingers sticky and colours your tongue orange, pink, green, yellow and purple. As the race approaches the end, there is a chunk of flavoured ice stuck to the ice cream stick. It threatens to fall off and you invariably take the rash decision of pulling it all into your mouth. The familiar brain-freeze follows as you struggle to quickly swallow it down. What you are left with is a tongue so numb you can hardly speak and a heart so happy you want to sing.

Whether your favourite popsicle flavour is grape or strawberry, mango or orange, pineapple or cherry, bubblegum or cola, no matter which part of the world you are in, and no matter how old you are, chances are, once you have had a taste of this sugary delight you will never forget how it fills you with childish mirth. So as a very intuitive person said, "Keep Cool and Have a Popsicle." ^_^