Alternative Methods To Chill In Goa

It might seem strange if I said that ice cream can warm the heart, but consider for a moment, the possibility of that being true. Somehow, ice cream always ties in with more than fleeting emotion; there’s always a back story, and it’s almost always a good one.

- Fernando Monte Da Silva

A midnight drive with friends…the destination is usually one that has ice cream on offer. The movies have taught us that when you’re testing how far that person vying for your attention is willing to go, you often make an unreasonable request for a bizarre ice cream flavor at an unearthly hour as a test... and many of us have tried it. And that time you sat in bed with a friend and cried (and eventually laughed, and bonded more) over a bad breakup? There was definitely ice cream involved there, probably straight out of the tub.

For me, these emotional ties go far back to my childhood, and begin with one place in particular: ‘Himalaya Ice Cream Factory’. It is a place around which some of my happiest childhood memories are centered, not just because it signified something that is important to me – spending time with family – but also because it meant that I was allowed to eat as much ice cream as I wanted, and which child doesn’t want to hear that? Himalaya existed in Goa during a time when the big name brands available today weren’t a consumer’s option, and even though they are, these brands cannot, in my estimation, compete with the character that these old time ‘ice cream parlors’ provide. I was busy devouring Himalaya’s ‘Honeymoon Special’ sundae even before I knew what the word honeymoon meant, and the feeling that that provided isn’t something anyone can buy off the shelf. Sometimes, if I was really lucky, I’d manage two trips there in a week. The first one with both my parents and the second one after my father had sworn me to secrecy, in the hope that my mother wouldn’t find out. How she will feel after reading this story is another matter, however.