Date: 27 April
Venue: Hotel Le Meridien, Delhi

Summer has its own advantages and no, we are not talking about mangoes.  Le Meridien, Janpath recently organized an evening of sharbats at Allure. While the focus was sharbats as in traditional summer drinks of Delhi, the event had an interesting twist. They had roped in Asif Dehlvi and Rohit Manchandani from Delhi Karvan to tell the audience stories about sharbats and its connect with Delhi.

Asif mostly spoke in Hindi-Urdu and took us to the times of Wajid Ali Shah and the last days of Delhi Sultanate.  His stories were about the food, culture and lifestyle in that era. Given his animated style, we could almost visualize his description as if it was on a screen before us. Rohit was more reserved in his approach. He spoke in English and focused on sharbats. Sharbats were drinks prepared from fruit or flower extracts. We also learnt that while sharbats are popular as soft drinks, they are a form of healing tonic in Unani medicine.

While the stories were on, a host of sharbats were served. We recall tasting Imly (tamarind) sharbat, Rose sharbat, Paan (betel leaves) sharbat, Khus sharbat, Mohabbat ka Sharbat – a milk and watermelon drink which is Ramzan special.  Our favorites would be Imly and Mohabbat ka Sharbat.  To add an authentic Delhi touch, Old Delhi Style street food from Chandni Chowk – gol gappe, cheela and aloo tikki were also laid for the attendees.  Could we have asked for more?

We raise a sharbat to summer – Le Meridien –  and whole lot of Delhi nostalgia!