ICE

 
It was the early 90’s and I had heard a lot about ice through various sources but never had an chance to see a ice cube apart from the Arun ball Ice cream my mother brought for me and sister whenever we had to go to dentist. After we ate the ice cream we preserved those balls and used it for various purposes like a cricket ball, to put in the few paise's we get as left overs. During those days our home did not have a refrigerator or in other words we never felt we needed one until latter when the advertisements made us think that we were missing some thing very integral to the day to day life.

It happened on a Sunday December early morning in 1991 when the temperature was dropping to less than 15 degree and everything was kind of freezing for someone who always lived in +30 degrees. We could feel how deep the freeze was when we wake up in the morning and take the parachute cocoanut oil from the kitchen shelf to realize the whole oil has been turned from liquid to semi-solid and it refuses to come out until we keep it near the burning stove for few minutes. We were staying in a rented house and brought our milk from the MILMA vendor who would distribute the packets early morning by placing them into the plastic bag we placed on our gate. As mom was making tea for us she wanted me to pick up the paper and MILMA packet.From my front door I could see the gate and see if the milk packets were placed in the plastic bag. As i went out I could see the morning waking from the crutches of the cold night and everything coming to life with the sunrise warming the horizon. As I grabbed the milk packets from the bag I felt the cold pass through my warm hands but what was more exciting was the few lumps inside the MILMA packet which felt like frozen milk. I rushed to the kitchen and grabbed the black sicssors from the kitchen rack and emptied the packets into a wide mouthed aluminum container which had ANU written on it when it was brought from the store. The name was more kind of marking a territory and my sister had her share of utensils which we both had a personal connection with. As the milk emptied into the container I could see those floating ice lumps that could have been created when the packet was inside the freezer when it was transported from the factory to our local vendor. On a normal day by the time vendor reaches our home it would have melt sitting in his cycle but today was special with the temperature favoring the ice lumps to remain in their state. I was excited to see a raw form of ice other than the processed ice that I ate from the Arun ice cream ball. I cried out for my sister and we fished those ice cubes using a spoon which had her name written on it. As soon it was in our hands the warmth of our body started it to change its shape and soon it just vanished into thin air remaining the traces of milk in our hands. Though it was only for few minutes the excitement carried a long way residing in some corner of my heart and comes out every time i see ice cubes. How funny is life, isn’t it?