Monday, October 13, 2008

Its not just about lemon and water...


I wonder who had discovered... or rather made this drink for the first time...
Nimbu Paani... better known to the westerners as the Lemonade.. I feel its the perfect drink.. Nothing can better a glass full of cold lemonade.. No other drink, not even plain water can be that refreshing on a hot sunny day...

My fascination for lemonade started in childhood primary school days... At those times, the famous brand "Rasna" was in vogue... easy to prepare, all u needed to do was to prepare the concentration once, and then just add cold water and voila !!

Once in 2nd or 3rd grade, I happened to taste a glass of Nimbu Paani my Mom had made for herself... and then I made my mom prepare 3 more glasses of Nimbu paani for me, cause I had never had such a wonderful drink ever in my life... No Rasna flavour was as good as this one for sure..

Then One day I realized that this drink is more than just adding Lemon, water, sugar and salt... Just like any other delicacy, it needs to be prepared with care... each and every ingredient should be in the right concentration... I tried many places near my school, near my society, on the railway station, at my place... from my mom, my sister, my aaji... even at my friends' place... But I never found the right taste I was looking for... No doubt it tasted wonderful and refreshing, but I never had that satisfaction... Until one day, my experiments with the ingredients worked out perfectly :)

One summer vacation in school was spend in such experiments... my afternoons were spent in the kitchen... I used to sit on the chair with the entire kitchen spread all around me, which used to drive my Mom insane... I used to tell her I am working on some top secret experiment... she started believing I am like one of those mad scientists, who were trying to found the secret formula for everlasting youth... Alas, she Didnt know how much more important for me was to find out the perfect recipe for the Nimbu Paani...

And one such morning, I was finally successful... I wasn't in a bath tub or else I would have really ran out of it, completely nude... but would had been shouting "Aai aikla ka"... instead of "Eureka"... My mom tasted it.. she said... "Kharach changla banavla aahe re...", which I later came to know that she said it just for the sake of saying it... but she didnt realize what effect those words had on me... I bought about ten lemons from the roadside baniya, and made up almost 2 litres of the "Perfect" Nimbu Paani, and called up all my friends from the building to have a drink... (That was my very first "Drinks" party with my friends, back in 3rd grade :D)
I used to drink Nimbu Paani like anything, day in and day out... and i never used to drink it from the glass... rather I used to slowly take in small sips with a teaspoon like a baby who is getting spoon fed... I just loved to savour the taste of each and every drop of that refreshing drink... The Nimbu Paani drinking session actually used to last for almost half an hour, watching FunTime - Giant Robot and He Man on Doordarshan :)

Gone are the good old days... But Nimbu Paani still remains the best drink for me... All it requires is the perfect concentration of Cold water, the perfect amount of lemon juice, Sugar and salt, and a little bit of Jaljeera.. and yes plenty of love filled in it by the one who is making it... and voila !! The recipe for Perfect Nimbu Paani is ready :)