This morning as I was listening to some of the old Punjabi songs from my pirate collection (what I call my collection of pirated MP3s) I was reminded of an incident from my childhood, I must have been in class 4 or 5 when my parents during our summer vacations took us on a tour of gurudwaras around Punjab though it was a very joyful trip for one little problem that the bus which our tour group was traveling was using very old set of tires and we were troubled by flat tires quite often and we had to halt every now and then for the change of tires. It was during one such stops that was at a filling station that the incident occurred. It was a quite noon and the filling station was at a distant place with no sign of any houses nearby there were a few roadside stands nearby it. As the bus halted the driver and his helper got off to get the flat tires repaired and the travelers got off the bus and made themselves busy; the ladies got under the shade of the tree and started to chatter while the men got under the shade of another huge tree and followed the ladies example. some of the men showed their curiosity and went to the shop where the tires were being repaired. The children scattered all around the place and indulged in playing, I however was a shy child and decided to be alone. While I was searching for a medium as to how to pass the time in hand my eyes fell upon one roadside stand where an old lady was sitting over and watching over an earthen oven. i was attracted so much by this that as after sometime I found myself standing at the entrance of that bakery looking curiously over the proceedings as i saw the lady pull out a tray and uncovering it she emptied it's contents into a basket watching me standing for sometime and gazing at the big round cookies that she had just emptied she took one from the basket and offered it to me. I was so temted by the look of that cookie that i decided to ignore the warning given by mother ("Do not take anything from strangers") and at once grasped the cookie and smiled at the old lady.(There's something about these old people that however cranky they maybe they give in when they see a little child) handing me over the cookie the old lady went on with her work. By this time i was captured by the pleasing scent of the cookie and the light warmth that it passed onto my hands, the cookie was twice the size of my little hands and i held it out with both my hands in front of me. By the time I was over admiring the cookie and was about to think of eating it my mother's warning sounded in my head and at once I ran over to the herd of chattering ladies in which my mother was sitting and showed her the cookie, and when she inquired where had I got it from I told her of the old lady and her bakery and asked if she wanted to taste it. my mother smiling took the cookie and divide it into two and gave one half to me while she shared the other with the ladies who had by now put their hungry eyes on my cookie. Delighted to receive half the cookie i ran off with my half of the brown moon and took a bite off the piece, the taste as I can still remember it more than 10 years since was by far of the best cookie I had ever tasted in my life. and by the time I was finished with my cookie I heard the roar of the bus and my father by my side who took me by the hand into the bus as we were ready to go. As soon as I got into the bus we drove off and from the window I could still see the smoke coming out the bakery chimney and remembered the taste of the most delicious cookie I had ever tasted and perhaps will taste in my life.
