IT was sunday noon and I'd taken a spin on my bike ..generally tooling along enjoying the winter chill that sliced through my jacket and made me come alive.After  driving around for a fair while and feeling a need to have a bite of something fatty and absolutely redolent with cholestrol, I popped into the first mall you come across on hitting Noida.
Parking the bike and slipping my helmet under my arms, I strolled inside and looked around for an eatery,but , what drew my attention was a shop that sold sweets @ toffees.

Intrigued I stepped inside and it was truly delightful..stuff that I'd not thought about consciously for many many years..lollipops with built in whistles,thick brown taffy ,multi hued gum strips wrapped around small sticks,lemondrops,jujubes,,wow.Just then I saw a bunch of candyfloss wrapped hygienically in transparent clearfilm.
20Rs for one..this was robbery,,why the last time I had one it had cost 50 paise!! Anyway I picked my purchase and sauntered to the atrium and took a tentative lick..umm it was good,but something was missing...

What was that ingredient ... I desperately strained my grey cells...  Summers ,,yes ,he always used to be there during summers..tanned mahogany face ,dark black eyes,dark hair that dangled in an unruly  tangle that escaped his vivid turquoise blue safa ,crow feet crowded the corners of his eyes and a deep baritone that pierced the neighbourhood and alerted every child...Boodiya ke baal le lo!

He would set his cane stand with colourful bloomers swinging hither thither  playfully in the warm summer breeze.Then with casual grace he would unsling the round box from across his shoulders ,carefully settling it down on the cane stand.Dipping his hands into a bag he would pluck out some bits of pink coloured bits of glazed sugar and sprinkle them into the pan.We would eagerly crowd around him as he would weave his magic!!

Slowly with infinite patience his hand would descend on to the age smoothened and darkened wooden handle.He would pause look into our eyes and then begin to rotate the wheel..as the whirring would pick up ,gossamer web of bright pink filaments would start arcing around towards the edges .Soon,there would be a an unbelievably beautiful net of pink cloud suspended across the pan.Slowing the spinning pan he would then extract a thin bamboo stick and proceed to twirl it around ..and voila ..there you had it ..candy floss.

The magic of it was in his art and thats what I was missing today..for all the  clinical perfection and the presentation..I missed my Candy Floss Man..his flair for imparting a touch of romance and wonder in a kids candy,,I wonder where he is? Is he alive or is he in heaven whipping candyfloss for the Gods? I wonder..













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