Happiness. 100% pure. No sugar added.

I don't like carbonated drinks.

Don't like coke, don't like pepsi.

So when I read somewhere that each can of these drinks contains about ten teaspoons of sugar, I went "Muahahaha!" :D

Ooops, hang on, but I like Thums Up.

But then, according to me, Thums Up is not a carbonated beverage. For me, Thums Up is 'my childhood in a bottle'. I grew up in India drinking copious amounts of four drinks - Thums Up, Maaza, pani-puri ka pani and ganne ka ras (sugarcane juice).





















Two weeks back, I went to Bombay Cafe with a friend. A place I go to for the world's best gobhi manchurian and Thums Up.

Yes, they have the world's best Thums Up. (Don't ask.)

Bombay Cafe is the only place in Singapore that carries Thums Up. In a bottle, no less. Could this be any more Yeay?! But it is in the opposite end of the country. Yeah yeah, I know Singapore is only 40 km wide, but it is still the opposite end of the country from where I live. And yet, I travel across the entire country for my Thums Up.

So that day, when the waiter told me they were out of Thums Up, I went "WHAT??? No Thums Up? You have no Thums Up????"

They did not have Maaza either. I was getting more and more disappointed and frustrated. Finally, I decided that I had to have pani puri ka pani at least. So I ordered a plate of 6 pathetic pani puris, (they cost a dollar each, and I was thinking of the old days when we got five pani puris for 1 rupee!). It was the worst pani puri I had ever had! Even the mineral water pani puris I'd had in Delhi last year suddenly seemed better.

So I grumpily dug into my gobhi manchurian without Thums Up and without Maaza and without pani puri ka pani.

After dinner, we decided to go to the beach. Guess I really needed that. Lately I hadn't had any time to go chill at the beach, something that I used to love to do once upon a time, when I was living in the east and did not have one and a million assignments to finish over the weekends.

We must have walked for miles and miles along the beach. Suddenly I realised I was so thirsty I was gonna drop dead. The problem was that we had wandered off to a place where there were no drinks stalls or shops, only restaurants. So we went to this seafood restaurant if we could buy only a takeaway drink. The lady agreed and so we paid $2.10 for the only drink they had - a measly can of diet coke. But I was so thirsty anything would have done.

But coke, and that too diet coke?

Suddenly it felt like nothing was right with the world.

Not feeling very happy about having to settle for coke, we walked further along the beach, and suddenly my eyes lit up.

There it was, a sugarcane juice stall! A sugarcane juice stall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Barely able to contain my excitement, I hopped like a kid and bought my tall glass of sugarcane juice with a slice of freshly cut lime in it.

Pure delight for only $1.50.

And suddenly, everything in the world was all right.

Thank goodness happiness is so low-maintenance.