Nimbu Pani – Indian Lemonade

The Summer of 80’s…

“Don’t play in the hot sun!” shouted my mum standing at our porch. Me and my brother would give her a glance and shout back “please few more minutes!” and go back to playing with our friends. She would sigh and go back inside. And within few minutes she would come back with a pitcher full of lemonade and glasses and put it on that old, turquoise blue painted wooden swing. Lemonade brings back this exact same memory almost always when I make it, just how my mum would make it.

I am an 80’s kid, and I don’t know why but I feel 1980’s has to be the most awesome decade. To prove my point I have multiple reasons out of which – the biggest one has to be the most awesome childhood I had. We did not have computers, internet or mobiles to play with, instead every evening after the dreaded school hours were over, we would go out and play in the play-area, go bicycling in the neighborhood, climb trees in the nearby woods, pick berries, build tree-tents (yes such thing exists! Or it did for us!) or play hide and seek! And like most kids, we waited for summer vacation to arrive. So, we could not only play in the evening but all day everyday for next few weeks!

Summer Vacation – for which we would wait eagerly and impatiently through the entire month of April. The final exam would be over and the sense of accomplishment or should I say the relief of getting over with another year in school was beyond everything. The mornings would start lazy, that oodles of love from mum in form of breakfasts and that no need to hurry up to shower or clean up to go to the school, aahh precious!!! And as soon as the lunch would be over, we would run outside to be joined by our friends, who I believe were the only people who could understand our joy and freedom. We would play for hours and come back to the porch to quench our thirst and keep us hydrated with this Nimbu Pani (lemonade) which translates to lemon water.

Perfect for summer days!