Ayanavaram kids miss ice-cream

CHENNAI: This summer, children of Ayanavaram are a perturbed lot — they have been denied the coolest thing about summer.They have been forced to give their cool companion, ice-cream, a miss because of a shortage in the supply in the area.S Aadhirai, a nine-yearold girl, told City Express that she misses ice-creams the most this summer.Meghaa Malini, an 11-year old CSI Ewart school student was of the same opinion.According to Meghaa, ice-creams had always been an integral part of summer for her until last year. “Even if the power goes, if we have ice-cream, we do not feel the heat. Not finding icecreams in any of the nearby shops is an awful feeling," she said.However, the ice-cream dealers in Ayanavaram have their reasons for cutting down on the supply of ice-creams. Shivakumar, who owns a bakery on Ayanavaram Road, said, “We were dealers of Arun icecream till a month ago. But we have stopped the supply due to frequent power cuts.” He said that even if they do not consider the profit quotient of selling ice-creams in the bakery, they do not want to incur losses. “With the midnight and early morning power cuts being frequent, we cannot afford to stock ice-creams because they melt. Hence we decided to stop having icecreams in our bakery,” he told City Express. Another shop-keeper on Ayanavaram Road, a dealer of Jamaai ice-creams till a year ago, was also of the same opinion.With the unavailability of ice-creams in areas like Ayanavaram Road, Raji Street, Metu Street and other near-by areas, the people have no option but to go all the way to Kilpauk or Konnur High Road to buy them. Geetha, a house-wife who has been residing on Raji Street for seven years, said, “We go all the way to Kilpauk or Konnur High Road to buy ice-creams.Since ice-creams are scarce in our area, I stock them at home so that my children can have them anytime they want.” The woes of the residents of Ayanavaram do not stop at this, however. Most houses have frequent minor electrical defaults like fusing of lights, damaged fan coils and short-circuited air conditioners. Also the early morning and late night power cuts continue to haunt the residents of Ayanavaram.“In the past one month alone, we have changed at least five lights. Power goes off at night and early in the morning. We also have a no electricity for an hour every day between 9am and 10am.I had to rush to finish cooking before 9am, and it was very hectic,” Geetha said.Denied their supply of ice cream and suffering frequent power cuts, the residents of Ayanavaram certainly have a reason to lose sleep this summer.