90s wali picnic @ India Gate

In the

90s

, planning a day out meant heading to

India Gate

, packing a wicker basket with the essentials — a walkman loaded with your favourite cassette, a transistor for the latest tunes, an analog camera to capture candid moments, and, of course, a comic book to escape into another world while lounging on a chataai

90s picnic staples

A transistor blared Bollywood classics, occasionally crackling as someone adjusted the frequency. For those lucky enough to own a walkman, it was a private escape into the world of Kumar Sanu’s hits or an old Kishore Kumar melody
Someone would invariably have an analog camera, a black-and-silver Kodak or Yashica, capturing posed portraits in front of the India Gate. The camera roll was precious — each click was deliberate, as there was no way to delete and reclick

Out came the homemade sandwiches — aloo or chutney and rainbow sandwiches — alongside jimjam biscuits or milk bikis and mango juice tetrapacks that tasted sweeter under the open sky. The chatter of hawkers selling balloons, roasted peanuts, papad, buddhi ke baal and

ice cream

punctuated the calm, adding to the picnic experience
‘Pehle naa rate hota tha, naa date hota tha, kewal ice cream hoti thi’
Having an ice cream at India Gate is a quintessential Delhi thing to do, even today.

Since 1980, Ramesh Singh from Etah has been selling ice creams to locals and tourists at India Gate. He shares, “Pehle naa rate hota tha, naa date hota tha, kewal ice cream hoti thi. Itni choice nahi hoti thi. Ab log ice cream khaate kam hain, confuse zyada hote hain. Pehle bas chocobar, vanilla, strawberry, do stick wali popsicle aate thay aur Casatta bhi, jo sabse achhi hoti thi. Softy toh 25-50 paise ki hoti thi late 80s tak. Casatta ki shuruaat ₹2.5 se hui thi aur chocobar aati thi 75 paise ki.” He adds, “Gaylords’ Kwality, Milkfood were some popular ice cream brands. Dilliwalon ne ice cream khana seekha hi Gaylord ki wajah se hai. Amul baad mein aaya, India Gate pe pehla Amul ka cart main hi laya tha. Mera pura jeewan yahin ice cream khilate hue nikla hai.”