I was walking in Alpharetta downtown one evening. Generally watching people and peeking into the stores by the street. Something caught my eye in one of the stores. Backed up a few steps. If you can see at the back end of the wall on the right side – there is a painting of a girl. I thought that looked like something Sharmila had done. I asked her and she confirmed!!

I did not know there were Alpharetta downtown shops selling her paintings. Turns out there was another one in the store!

That brought back some memories from the yesteryears!! Saw this in the Farmers’ Market. Not that I needed any sugar, but it so reminded of the “micchri”s (মিছরি) from early childhood, that I had to buy a packet. Came back and did two things immediately:

(*) checked the English word for this. Apparently, it is “Rock Sugar” (that is what it said on the packet too). Had heard of Rock Salt, but never of Rock Sugar. Also, I did not realize that each one of them is a single crystal.

(*) put one in my mouth and crushed it with the molars just like we used to do nearly fifty years back!!!

Now, of course, I have to figure out how to put it to some proper use. Old Fashioned cocktail, perhaps?

The young kids were perfectly ok with the temperatures. They were in and out of the fountain water all the while.