I for Ice

Its colourless, its odourless but definetly not shapeless.

As children, there were lot of restrictions consuming ice. It was a luxury to have a fridge, unlike today where it’s a necessity. And it’s mainly used for juices, sherbets especially in summer. Ofcourse there were times, when we would just pop an ice cube in our mouth and it used to be so cold, that you couldn’t spit it out, neither could you gulp it, and you would hope it melts soon, and the numbness is gone.

 Years ago, when I went to US for the first time, I saw people carrying ice from the machine to their desk, and eat it just like that. I used to feel it was weird. I tried that once, and what can I say, I was hooked. It served dual purpose. One, if I wanted to pop something in my mouth, so that I could get the feeling of eating, I could just put a small piece of ice in my mouth. Second, I wasn’t eating any junk food, and it was plain water, which I was err eating. This way my water intake could increase. Ofcourse there was no weight reduction due to this. And I won’t blame it either, there were other times, when I have had junk food.

The thing that I observed was, earlier when I would try to eat ice, my teeth would go numb, my gums would go numb, and at times, I would get headache. But, when I did this in US, I never had that problem. Was it because, the ice was cylindrical and had a hole. May be the quantity of ice per pop was lesser, and so my mouth wouldn’t get number. Whatever the reason was, I enjoyed the phase of eating ice.

Even now, when the mocktails come with ice cubes, I keep playing with the cubes in my mouth. But I don’t enoy it as much as I used to in US. Maybe if I see it in the same shape.. my mind might say – Ice Ice Baby.