Butterscotch?
Yes, butterscotch.
Why butterscotch?
Why not butterscotch? It starts with the letter ‘B’.
Ahh, you have a point there.

And that’s how it was settled.

For reasons unknown, when I thought of possible words beginning with ‘b’ on which I could write today, ‘butterscotch’ which had been languishing somewhere deep inside the recesses of mind, forgotten as it were and biding its time, jumped to the fore, declaring itself the winner. The birds, bees, balls, beams, bison, bitter-gourds, bush-shirts, bulletproof vests, blue skies, boots, buttons and boors, not to mention billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles, all had to retreat accepting defeat, their hopes of being published, dashed to the ground.

Now that the word has chosen itself, what’s left is to find out where this post itself goes. I am as curious as you.

Butterscotch, as everyone knows, is a type of confectionery, with brown sugar and butter as its main ingredients. But that’s pretty boring stuff. Not as interesting as licking a butterscotch ice cream in a wafer cone, on a hot summer day. The choice in ice creams was straight and simple in the days of yore, at least where I lived: plain vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, pista, pineapple, orange and butterscotch. None of the mix and match versions with fancy names had descended on us as yet to confuse and confound the heck out of us.

During those much simpler times, Butterscotch ice cream was my most favorite. I loved the crunchy bits in it. Did you know those crunchy bits are made by boiling sugar to the ‘soft crack’ stage? If you go to the ‘hard crack’ stage then you’d be way off mark for it then becomes toffee. That’s a nugget of information I picked up somewhere or other. And also this that the ‘scotch’ part of its name was probably derived from the word “scorch”. I am not betting on it though, because there are those who claim the word indicates a Scottish connection.

For a long, long time I remained the ever faithful butterscotch girl. But things changed by and by. For a while I was a huge Rum and Raisin fan, then Fig with Honey Roasted Almond. Oh, who am I kidding, I am a butterfly flitting from flower to flower… sorry, I mean I am a human going from ice cream to ice cream, trying to sample them all (before I die!) and finding it hard put to decide which one I like best. For now I am a huge Gauva Chilly ice cream fan. Who can say about tomorrow?

Note 1: Important. Please, please don’t tell my doctor any of this. And if she asks anything, please direct her to Note 2.
Note 2: Dear Doctor, this here is fiction. I don’t like ice cream. Not at all.

© Shail Mohan 2020