Summer and ice lollies

Red, yellow, orange, pink, green… sugary ice in yummy flavourings…. ice lollies made summers more tolerable for us as kids. They brightened our mood.

The ice cream seller would wheel his cart and perch it outside the school run by nuns where I had studied in classes 1 and 2. He’d be merrily by the gate before the first school bell rang to end school hours for the tiny tots. He’d roll out his cart in the afternoon after the school buses, vans and cars left, transporting the kids to their homes.

Orange ice candy bars were the highest in demand among kids. They made our lips temporarily deep amber. We had an orthodox Bengali teacher who travelled by the same school bus with us. She had a mighty temper and we trembled in her fear.

On seeing our ruby lips after having sucked lollies, she’d scold us, “Aren’t you ashamed? How obscene to see schoolgirls in uniforms with red lips! You are purposely drawing the wrong kind of attention.”

We’d like to see one another’s lips with the texture of bright orange. Once in India, women would chew paan [betel leaves] to intentionally make their lips red.

In my next school, the ice cream vendor came at break-time and after school. No teacher shamed us for having crimson lips.