Homecoming..... : The ping-pong drink :

Oct 20 2009

I went to the local supermarket with dad ....aptly called the INDIAN SUPERMARKET.... This was one stop where we used to get the vegetables from. Although there were many other things available there, when it came to buying the veggies...mom loved this one place. And here i was again today. While just loitering around i suddenly came across a whole crate of cans kept stacked on each other and i just happened to have glanced across them and there it was SHANI. Oh how I missed this drink. Lots of memories attached to this one as well. Without giving second thought i bought it.

When i opened the can and took that first sip inside my mouth......aaaaahaaaa...that taste.....that sweetness ...i closed my eyes and it took me back to the past...

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I must have been in the 6th std. I had joined the Table-tennis coaching classes after school hours. I remember I and my neighbour and friend Nitin, we used to go to learn and play ping pong together. I was not much into sports as a kid. But then when I used to see other kids or my seniors play and perform...I used to feel....Oh..I wish I could do that....Oh...someday I wish i could. Well the only reason I joined the TT classes was to make an attempt towards that goal. I was just amazed by the way those guys used to hit that small little ping pong ball so hard and yet everytime it used to somehow find its way on to that table. I used to love the way that ball used to swirl in the air and spin on the table. And i wanted to learn all that. Hence one day...I go to my dad and say...."Dad...I wana join TT coaching. Nitin is joining too." And dad looks up at me in a very diff way with a bit of a shock. I am sure he was thinking and wanted to ask me " are you sure son?" ....hehe....but he didnt. He said "Ok". So there I was, my first day at the coaching, holding my new TT bat in my hand, waiting for my turn to hit that ball and boy-o-boy i really had fun. That evening Nitin's dad came to take us home. We were all sweaty and tired and exhausted and I really needed something cool to drink. A pepsi or a mirinda could do coz that was all i loved that time. But then there sitting in the back seat of his car, Nitin removed 2 cans of some strange drink I had never seen in my 6 years till then and handed one can to me. I held the chilled drink in my hand and saw the name SHAANI and i wondered "..hmmm...how will this taste." I was always reluctant to change so i refused it at first and asked Nitin, "dont you have pepsi?". And he said "no....but try this...its nice." I had no choice, I was thirsty and i really needed something to drink. So there it was ....my first ever sip of SHANI. The moment I sipped that drink on my tounge and down my throat and savoured that taste, i knew this one was going to be a regular for a long time to come. And it was.

I went for a month to learn and play TT and every single time, while coming back home, I had a can of SHANI. Every single time. Ofcourse later too whenever we used to go out shopping, I used to buy that drink and another good thing then, my bro didnt like it much....so I could have the whole drink for myself and nothing to share...hehehhahha... I later took part in various TT tournaments and I made sure I used to drink that before and after my game. SHANI to me what spinach was to Popeye. hehe... I won some of them ...I came to the finals and lost some of them....But one thing was there, i had achieved what i had set out for. I could swing that ball in the air and spin it on the table anytime now. TT became one of the sports where I could say I was and still am good at. And Shaani had a part in this achievement of mine. hehe.. I love SHANI...



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And here I was back home after 7 years and drinking that same drink and enjoying it in the same way i had enjoyed it the first time I had tasted it.
Now how nostalgic is that.