chocolatey goodness!

Chocolate is a wonderful treat for young and old alike. Many of us would have craving for chocolates, especially if you have been told not to eat anything sweet! Perhaps, if one is a diabetic, like me, the craving for chocolate increases many fold. I am sure, most of us would agree that chocolate is one delicacy that you cannot resist and even defies age barrier. My late mother (while on 87), loved to lap up on the chocolates with a childlike demeanour, although she used to say that she had lost the taste for other kinds of food. It is very rare, indeed, to come across a person who does not love chocolates. The only person I knew, who said a vehement “No” to chocolates was my grandmother, which was perhaps because, she was an extremely pious person and was convinced that chocolates did have eggs or something other than vegetarian ingredients.

As kids of sixties, chocolate was handed out to us sparingly with a mild warning to avoid them in excess; we were told they would spoil our teeth. The adults used to regularly point us to children having rotten/bad teeth as examples of the effects of indulging in too much chocolates. It was ingrained in us, as children, that chocolates were bad stuff. Pardon me for saying so, the dentists, who were very few in number those days, used to make a killing with chocolate-consuming young children as their regular clientele! There are various studies, these days, which says that dark chocolate is healthy because it contains flavonoids, which act as anti-oxidants. Had these studies been published when we were younger, perhaps, life would have been much more 'chocolatey' and delightful for us kids!

As young kids, we often imagined of a “chocolate-filled dream land”, where a variety of chocolates were available for the picking; in abundance, spread out on  the streets.  A life where there were no restrictions from adults citing bad teeth concerns or cost-prohibitive barriers; where one was free to indulge in the different kinds of chocolates available and savour them to ones' heart’s content.  Just imagining a scene from the movie 'Charlie and the chocolate factory' releases the happy harmone "serotonin" in my brain.  What if those chocolate dreams were real!  

Those days, the milk chocolates bars (like Cadbury’s) were very expensive for ordinary folks to afford; the chocolates that were generally gifted were of the candy variety with a mild coating of chocolate; either Parry’s brand (with green transparent wrapper) or Parle brand ('Kismi') candies or toffees. I still remember, as children, we used to mistakenly call toffees and candies as chocolates, due to the chocolate colouring and coating. These were the candies distributed by children in our School days, on their birthdays.  On some very special occasions, our parents used to treat us to real milk chocolates, like the Cadbury’s chocolate bars. We were not aware of any other brand of chocolates till very much later in life.  

Buying chocolates in bulk quantity and enjoying them had become a habit with me, during my stay in the Middle East. There were huge discounts available at various Department Stores and Malls where the chocolates could be bought cheap in bulk quantity.  We were so buoyed up to have tasted different brands of chocolates produced from different countries; the Belgian variety or the Swiss variety and even the French variety. Life was, indeed, a “chocolate dream” come true.  Obviously, when there is too much of “chocolatey goodness” in life, can the dreaded “diabetes” be far behind! Thanks to this debilitating condition, all our chocolate buying spree came to an abrupt end, leaving behind only the "craving" to eat more chocolates!