\'Ice gola\' a craze in the past is now almost forgotten

HYDERABAD: The ‘ice gola’ had for long been a craze to many, but the dessert is seldom sighted on the pavement these days. Yet, memories of the pushcart with a block of ice and coloured bottles of syrup linger. Most of these pushcart vendors have quietly retreated from the scene following the arrival of the mainline dessert outlets. Some still remain in this business and are doing good sales. For, no branded dessert can replace the flavour and taste of ice gola.

This is popularly known in the local dialect as ‘baraf ka gola’ ‘chuski’ or ‘baraf laddu’. In the past, there was no summer without a tasting of this frozen treat.

There, for it, are the regular customers. Not just children, several grown-up people too visit these places with nostalgia writ large on their faces, happy as they are with the flavours of ‘kala-katta’ ‘rain- bow’ or ‘orange’ at these push-carts.

One such popular pushcart joint is at Abids, near St Gorgeous Grammar School. Children through generations address the cart-wala as ‘chaush’. Chaush is here at this spot since 1970. He also visits the surrounding areas of Hanuman Tekdi, King Koti, Gunfoundry and Hyderguda.

“My name is Sayed Ali, but everyone calls me Chaush. I started selling this for 5 paise and 10 paise.”

Many of the old students from the surrounding schools made him more popular by making his video scenes and posting them on social media.

“Thousands of my ‘children’ who ate my ice cream are now spread across the globe. They make a visit to this spot when they visit Hyderabad, they will make sure they visit me,” Chaush said.

Minister K.T. Rama Rao recently invited Chaush to his official residence and relished his school-day memories. “Am feeling so proud that the ‘children’ who ate my barafi are now in high positions. KTR introduced me to his family. His hospitality was wonderful.” Another popular joint is at Yakutpura, near Volta Hotel, the Saleem bhai ice gola centre run by Sayeed Saleem for three-and-a-half decades.

Most of the Old City folks stop by at the push cart joint even today.

Saleem said, “People not only savour this but they also interact with us. They come in as a bunch of friends, maybe after having their dinner.”

Stated Mahmood Zubare, a customer: “I grew up with this ice gola, at Saleem bhai’s. The gulab jamun, mixed with ice, ‘khowa’ and colours is quite popular.”

Akash Nadinavelu, resident of Karkhana, said, “Those flavours still linger in my thoughts. It was my favourite during my school days. Around three decades ago, Karkhana, Trimulgherry etc had no traffic. After school, we used to buy this, and then have it slurping slowly and walking.”