There he comes, I could hear the car stop, I could hear the footsteps climbing up the stairs towards the door, it’s just a matter of time and the calling bell will ring the door will open I will shake his hands and finally I will get those big bars of chocolates.
The year was 1988 and my father had taken up a new job in Bangalore and our entire family had shifted from Calcutta leaving behind friends, cousins, and school. Bangalore was not Bengaluru that we see now in 2016, it was a town fit for a retired couple who would like to settle somewhere quite with a beautiful weather and a slow life. Our house was located at Charles Campbell Road near to Bangalore East station and this part of the town was like in a permanent hangover. Old one-storied houses with a garden in front, pet dogs, evening walks and late risers things were like always moving in a slow motion.
Leaving behind a chaotic Calcutta was like a culture shock for me, so was the language shock, unable to speak fluent English it was a challenge in school thus my friend circle was limited to those students who spoke less.
Homefront was similar it was either study or watching black and white television beaming out Kannada movies of Rajkumar, Vishnuvardhan or Shankar Nag. With no friends in the neighbourhood, it was boredom to the power of infinity.
The only time my eye lit up was when my uncle from Calcutta came to visit us in Bangalore during his office trips. Every time he would come he would get the biggest chocolate bars that were available in the market at that time. He would obviously bring two, one for me and the other for my sister.
I could not wait for him to sip the cup of tea I would inevitably vanish to our bedroom and hide under the bed and tear open the wrapper to bite into the magical world of chocolates. Sometimes there were fruits and nuts while sometimes pure milk chocolates. I can still feel them melting on my tongue as I write.
For sure my mother would catch hold of me and snatch the remaining chocolates and keep them in the refrigerator and strictly instruct me not to have them all at once. These instructions fell on deaf ears and the very moment I would see the refrigerator unguarded I would raid its contents.
Usually by the first day itself my share of the chocolates would vanish in my mouth and then I would try all the tricks in the book to get my sister hand over some from her share. Initially, it would start with basic level blackmailing and then slowly move on to fist fights. Out of compassion my sister, however, would donate me a couple of cubes in reality however these were done just to shoo me off.
Nearly 28 years later I was again in a similar situation but this time, however, I was pampered with chocolates, chocolates, and more chocolates. I was invited by Fabelle Chocolates for their Instagrammers and bloggers meet, the occasion was for their launch in the city of Kolkata.
Most of the chocolates available in the Indian market are made with a cocoa bean of not that high quality but what we were offered were the best of the best from the world market. Fabelle chocolates have cocoa sourced from countries like Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Venezuela, Saint Domingue and Sao Tome. Last year I had a wonderful opportunity to travel in West Africa and it is then that I came to know the value of Cocoa which some out there consider as a brown gold.
Fabelle also has a wide collection of desserts and cocoa beverages which are exclusively available at their lounge and those were out of the world. For a moment I had the feeling that I was back to my childhood days hiding under the bed and enjoying the chocolates. Usually, people especially adults cannot have too much of chocolaty products since it instantly kills one’s appetite but Fabelle was something different, it was created perfectly to satisfy the taste buds as well as keep the taste balanced so that one can keep trying one after the other.
Their exclusive chocolates which are called Fabelle Elements are inspired from nature with products such as Earth, Air, Water, Wood and Fire each with its own distinct taste. The soft Ganache melts in your mouth creating a fine balance of dark chocolate and sweetness.
If you want to customize as per your own taste then there is an option for Fabelle As You Like It, you can personalize it as per you liking with mini choco cups. We were also given the opportunity to create something on our own with an array of ingredients. Just fill in those choco cups, garnish it and let them melt in your mouth.
I was actually enjoying the evening being an adult kid in the magic kingdom of confectionaries where everything was made up of chocolates and the best part of the evening was when all the Instagrammers and bloggers were handed a box of Fabelle Elements and a box full of ganache. It was one fine happy evening with a lot of chocolaty memories and for the record, the box full of ganache was for my sister, perhaps a sweet way of telling thank you for all those chocolates shared during our childhood.
Thank you Calcutta Instagrammers for the invitation. A big thanks to ITC Hotels and Fabelle Chocolates for the wonderful evening. And lastly, thank you Payel for getting along and pausing whenever I wanted to shoot you in action.