Lights, sounds, camera andddd action?. Circa 2004 a man dapper dressed in business formals comes out of his plush office in some sleek happening business address in India.
Zoom in, zoom in, pray what on earth is he hiding from the camera, check out his left hand, and, there it is, boss it looks like some bar, could it be a gizmo gadget or is it concealed camera, what is it. Tensions mount, cameraman perspires more, the audience watches with baited breath.
The director yells out what on earth is he carrying so surreptitiously, he wasnt supposed to do it. Amidst all this tension, drama and hoopla our man of the moment pulls out the half eaten, half licked, half bitten into chocolate bar and munches into it hungrily. Cutttttt it?!! Yells the petulant director pulling together his self as he rushes to the protagonist.
Gives him his piece of mind and demands an explanation from him. The coy actor sums up all his guts and meekly says kya swaad hai zindagi mein, kuch khaas hai zindagi mein
For those who still haven?t been able to discern what I am talking about, well, let me give it a second chance. A cricket match is in motion, last ball of the match, batsman playing on 94, team needing 6 runs to win, in comes the bowler, bowls, batsman is on the back foot, plays the shot in the air, fielder getting underneath it, crowd watches with suspended animation, balls soars over the boundary rope and the team is home.
A girl jumps out of the stands, starts jiving to a tune kya swaad hai zindagi mein, kuch khaas hai zindagi mein. I am sure now you would have understood what I am talking of. Gosh you still haven?t or what?Good Lord me, this is too much, I am talking about nothing else but Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate.
Wonderfully etched memories of childhood comes screeching back to my conscious mind the moment I think about chocolate of that my favorite, the good old Dairy Milk. I still remember when the god-gift to mankind thing used to cost like an earthly two rupees and fifty paisa to acquire. Still recall the days like a roll from the black and white movies, the year was 1985, Indira Nehru Gandhi had been brutally assassinated and a young and unassuming pilot named Rajiv was sworn in as the man to lead the nation?s destiny. Amongst all these path-breaking, me as a kid was more then happy to munch into my caramel filled, nut enriched, yummy Dairy Milk. Folks please don?t crucify me as being a traitor or something but please I was just a kid then and as a kid was doing what I am supposed to, right?
After all that wonderful words and still fresh in mind advertisement, lets talk about the stuff in question, which is Dairy Milk.
Slight background John Cadbury, a young Englishman ventured into the hitherto Swiss dominated chocolate industry when he opened the first Cadbury plants way back in 1824.He believed that wine and liquor were the harbingers of depravity and poverty in the society and hence his foray into the field of coffee, chocolate and cocoa. Since then Cadbury has come a long way from the days of dry coarse chocolate made out of a mixture of cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sugar and milk powder to the days of fresh milk and the genesis of Dairy Maid aka Dairy Milk. Ever since the first Cadbury plants were opened in India way back in 1947, it has become synonymous with chocolate. People recognize chocolate by the name of Cadbury in our sweet loving land. So much so that cocoa trees in Kerala have come to be known as Cadbury trees.
The yum quotient Well since we are talking about a chocolate, bacha log, it has to be tasty and very munch able. So I thought before anything else lets talk about the taste of this one. It is not raw chocolate, I am sure those who would have tasted raw chocolate would agree with what I am going to say now. Raw chocolate is very pungent on the tongue to say the least and at times can act as an intoxicant; one doesn?t feel like eating it after having a bite or two. Dairy milk is chocolate plus sugar plus emulsifiers and other dry fruits. The ingredients make it just too delicious to say the least. It is neither too sweet nor too bland, just the right taste one would want to have in his mouth after a long tiring day or at the beginning of the day or during the middle of the night, well basically all the time of the day.
The packaging it comes wrapped in a hygienic aluminum foil which is moisture free and is bacteria resistant for a period of three months, I believe. On top of that is the brilliantly done reusable paper work with the ever so recognizable Cadbury logo and the other content. Quite a catchy packaging one would have to admit.
Reach and availability it is available in every nook and corner of the country. It is as noticeable and easily available as corrupt politics in India. I believe it is being sold by almost 5.5 lakh outlets across the length and breadth of the nation so it should be available at the drop of the hat in any god-forsaken part.
Cost it comes at a more then affordable price of twenty-five rupees or so and what it brings along is sheer moment of joy and nostalgia. It brings back your wonderful childhood days, it brings back love, happiness and warmth. I feel that?s too less a price to pay for so much, isn?t it?
the emotional appeal I couldn?t resist talking about this at the end of the review. This is one product, which evokes emotion, which evokes joy and which evokes nostalgia of a bygone era, of times of joy and gay abandon and forlorn memories. Who can forget the wonderful advertisements that have been made to endorse the product, they are as fresh as today in our minds. It epitomizes Indian values and colors in the wondrous ways in which it has been marketed and talked about. We associate certain emotions and feelings with it. And I believe it is those feelings with which I have written this review today.
Except for a few strains like the worms episode which happened last year, the quality and values for which Cadbury stands for have remained intact. This indeed is a hallmark of a great brand and a wonderful product.
P.S For those who followed my other product review, please don?t question me about the deal here at stake, because more then money here, my emotions and nostalgic days of childhood are written all over here again
