Strawberries with Cream

Really?
Really. The season is being over two months back only, sahib
There has to be somewhere in this city where I can get some strawberries. Kahin toh milna chahiye.
Nahi sahib. Impossible hain
But I really really need them. Bahut jarurat hain. Can you get them from somewhere? I’ll pay you extra.
Sorry sahib, nahi hoga.

Anjor walks away from the fourth produce stand, the all-too-familiar conversation still echoing in his mind. Hell with the season, he thinks. He can’t let the damn season affect his grand plan. He still can’t believe that in a metropolitan city, he’s been to three hotels, four restaurants, and four different produce vendors, and been unable to find any strawberries. The menus in the restaurants he’s been to even advertise “Strawberries with Cream” on the dessert menu but the fine print says “only in season”. Whatever, I’ll make my own frickin strawberries with cream, he had thought, and looked up the recipe on Google.

It’s been almost a week since he started raising eyebrows by asking desperately if anyone knew a place where he could get some strawberries. He doesn’t have much time left. “What the hell” he thinks, I could probably find some drugs more easily in this city. He chuckles dryly at the thought of asking a drug dealer for some strawberries. With no other option he retreats again to Google, his solution for everything. For the fifth time he types in “buy strawberries Pune” in the search bar, and waits for the slow dialup line to spit out the results on the already grimy screen. He isn’t expecting much, he knows too well how and why web search results are generally deterministic over short periods of time. But he searches again anyway.

A word in the context based ads on the right column of his Google search results catches his eye. Frozen. Just reading the word makes him freeze. Of course, why didn’t he think of that before? Not for the first time in recent years, he mumbles something about his education being a waste because it doesn’t teach him the important things in life.

An air conditioned breeze greets Anjor as he rushes into Monsoon Agro frozen product exporters, on the outskirts of the city. His hair is windswept and his eyes are inquiring. “Frozenstrawberrieshainkya” he blurts out half way to the front desk.

Excuse me Sir, what would you like today?
Do you have frozen strawberries?
We have strawberry pulp sir.
No no no, that is unacceptable you have to have frozen strawberries because the internet told me it is true!
Sir, please calm down, main abhi dekhti hoon. I’ll just check. Haan Hello, we frozen strawberry hain kya? Yes? Kitna? Ok bye. Yes sir, we have frozen strawberries in stock. How many kilos do you require? We only sell in bulk. Do you have a restaurant or hotel that you would like us to deliver to?
Uh…I don’t really want to buy in bulk…
Sorry sir you can only purchase the strawberries here in quantities of 10 kilos or more.
Well…I have to sample some for my restaurant before my manager can order in bulk, na? I can buy a small sample of one kilo and then I will come back to purchase 100 kilos if the customers are satisfied, na.
Ok Sir definitely that will be fine, please come back soon. Thank you.

After a short wait for the delivery guy to get to the sales office from the warehouse, Anjor walks out with a considerable quantity of frozen strawberries in his arms. It is do or die now, he has less than a day left. He doesn’t know yet what he’ll do with all the extra strawberries, but he’s sure his mother will find some good use for them. He knows he’s late, but his spirits are high with the small victory, and he zips away in and out of the heavy midday traffic on his crappy scooter.

---
This can’t go wrong now, Anjor thinks. Everything is in place. He is meeting a group of friends in a local café, and she said she could make it. He plans to ask the manager for a favor and hand him the bag of frozen strawberries with some cash, so that his table will be served strawberries with cream as a surprise. He gets to the café a good 10 minutes before everyone else, and spends a good amount of that trying to convince the manager to go through with his plan, to no avail. But he can’t let some café manager get in his way, he even beat the season. He races away to a neighboring place where he concocts an elaborate story about a birthday party for a local bigwig that he is late for and where strawberries with cream is supposed to be served. He is willing to pay whatever it takes. The barista obliges and Anjor dashes back to the first café with a promise of being back in a little bit to pick the dessert up.

Ten minutes after Anjor sits down with his friends, someone’s cellphone buzzes with a message. “Sorry guys I’m stuck at this other place and can’t make it tonight since I have to go straight home.” It’s from her. Anjor’s expression freezes for a moment but he knows what he has to do. He can’t give up, not now. He only has a couple of hours left. He leaves the café early, and goes to check on the dessert that he has put his life into over the past week. It’s not ready, but Anjor insists that he must have at least one serving to deliver to the bigwig immediately, lest his birthday be ruined because of “some silly strawberry thing”. He is practically whooping for joy as he walks out with one serving of strawberries with cream, to go. He doesn’t even care about the 0.95 kilos of strawberry that he left in the café. He flips open his cellphone, takes a deep breath, and dials.

Hello?
Hi…are you free right now? Did you reach home in time?
Who is this?
Oh, uh sorry, its Anjor.
Oh hi. Yeah I just got home.
Would it be alright if I dropped by to say goodbye?
Sure. I’ll wait outside.
Great. Awesome. Thanks. Good…Uh..bye.

Anjor almost spills the contents of the fragile container on his way. He knows he’s driving way too fast but it seems pretty tame compared to how fast his heart is racing. He ignores the frantic calls from his parents who don’t know why he isn’t home yet. They are worried about him missing his flight.

There you are.
I just wanted to say good bye. And I brought this for you.
What is it?
Don’t flip it over! It might spill out!
What is it?
Uh..um…stracrem.
Huh?
I mean…str…strawberries with c..cream.
No way.
Yep.
But you couldn’t have known that I’d been craving strawberries with cream for the last month?
Well…you said it in the car, while you were talking to your friend.
When in which car? Oh….but that was like three weeks ago!
… yeah.
Where did you find this? You know, I looked in all my favorite restaurants and they all said it was out of season.
Oh you know, I happened to drive by this one place where they just happened to have this and I remembered that you wanted some so here I am.
Wow, that’s weird. I guess you’re just more lucky than I am.
Yeah I know. Anyway my flight leaves in a few hours so I have to go – my parents are probably worried sick.
When will I see you again?
Maybe at the end of the year, maybe next year, who can say?
Thanks for the strawberries with cream Anjor, it was really nice of you. Safe travels!
No problem at all, maybe I’ll see you the next time I’m visiting Pune, if you have the time.