House of Hari Saran Halwai, whose long Gulab Jamuns were very soft and delicious (सोलन / Solan)

House of Hari Saran Halwai, this one or near abouts, whose long warm Gulab Jamuns were the softest and most delicious of my life.

We lived there in around 1965.

The nearby slopes used to be vacant and covered with wild growth of Mint. Also lower down and far and wide
plants of "Bhaang" or "Cannabis" used to grow wild on the hills. In the season itinerant pickers would
pick and put them in their open top back packs, like Tea pickers'.

All that must be long since gone as the entire place is densely built in this satellite view and no open space at all. Well if we accept unrestricted population growth (about tripled since) then we must also accept the end of open and fresh natural places even in Hill Stations.

It was a large house let in several portions. For a while a Sardarji installed a Tablet making machine
which made a very loud clatter as it ran right inside their house!

One servant got hold of about two dozen detonators (explosives were very common those days, for the blasting often done in Roads repairs) and was trying to blow it up with a hot charcoal held in his hands with a tongs, the detonator in his other hand in touch with the lighted charcoal. We happened to see him as we returned from some where.

Eventually we children (about fourteen, twelve and nine) got hold of the detonators. I used to light them up in a newspaper, sometimes kept inside a Canister, on the road side on way from School. It was quite a bang and the canister would become like a sieve.

There was a Kulfi seller at the Bus Stand, whose Kulfi had a dash of Rum.

Hari Saran Halwai must be quite old now.