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KARACHI: Ice cream is like balm on wounds in this October heat. Go to any store and there are freezers provided by various ice cream companies full of cups, tubs, boxes, cones and ice lollies.

Your ears prick up on hearing ice cream sellers on tricycles, and the ice cream parlours offering a variety of flavours are another blessing to be thankful for in this weather.

And which lover of ice cream isn’t familiar with Baloch Ice Cream? Mohammad Hanif, the manager at their Bohri Bazaar outlet, laughs and shakes his head when asked why on earth the place is called ‘Baloch’?

“Well, it is the owner’s surname. He hails from that province and since there isn’t this big a market for ice cream there, he runs his business here,” he explains.

“Balochistan is a dry place with few pastures, so there are not many animals grazing there and hence there is a shortage of dairy milk there. Therefore, the milk from which we prepare the ice cream is also from Karachi,” says Shaukat Ali, who also works at the shop.

The manager adds: “It’s home-made ice cream. It tastes great. Earlier, we only had four to five flavours — vanilla, pineapple, strawberry and pistachio — while mango was seasonal. But now we have an explosion of flavours, cheeku, chocolate, you name it, to choose from. People also like our ‘surprise’, where the choice of flavours and toppings is left to us. There is a vast choice for toppings, too, from fresh fruit, dried fruit, faluda and jelly.”

Just then a customer walks in asking for pineapple ice cream. “I have been coming here for ice cream for 55 years now, since when I was a schoolboy and I never got a sore throat after having ice cream. I simply love it, especially in this weather,” says Amir Ali, the customer.

“Though it is hot during the day, most of our customers come at night. They come to shop at Bohri Bazaar and stop by for a scoop or two that won’t cost them more than Rs45 to Rs80,” says the shop manager.

From local, home-made ice cream worth Rs40 and Rs80 to ice cream imported from Switzerland, which is equally relished. “We offer 24 flavours and our customers are mostly kids,” says Farah Baloch at a Movenpick ice cream parlour in Defence. Above her are the names and pictures of the ice cream they offer. There is ‘Strawberry explosion’ and ‘Kid special’ that has different colour scoops in a bowl. These are priced at over Rs500. There is also ‘Tete-a-tete’ that has fresh fruit, nuts and crackers that is priced at Rs1,449.

There are shakes, too, at over Rs600. On the LCD screen on the wall there are hypnotic pictures being flashed one after another of all kinds of delights. Either you make your pocket lighter, or get out of the shop as quickly as you can!

Pedalling on the road outside there is the ice cream tricycle. Allah Ditta, who has been selling company ice cream for eight to nine years, says that ice cream is one thing that will always sell in Karachi be it summer or winter. “Even I help myself to it off and on to beat the heat. And the weather never turns cold enough even in winter to not think of having some yummy ice cream,” he says.

Published in Dawn October 4th, 2015