10:30 a.m., a sweltering Saturday morning, the sun at its glorious best. Add to this, five flavours of Polar-freeze ice-cream for unlimited grabs, and you have six beasts willingly jumping out of their beds and heading to the Taj Poolside all the way from those far-flung �burbs.

The six includes our sultry, knotty, six-months� preggy Bandana Tewari, in an extensively floral top, pink glares and pink dress. Rubbing her hungry bulge, she beams, �It�s not for me, I promise you! It�s for my little one inside, who can�t wait to pig on the tummy-yummy ice-creams! Uhhhh...can�t wait to get my mouth on them!� While Bandana hastily scours a high-fashion glossy, waiting for the rest of her ice-cream gang, she won�t stop preening at the prospect of kick-starting her weekend on an ice-chilled note. �I�ve never done this before! Ice-creams at 10:30 a.m.! Unheard of, ain�t it?�

Joining her in no time is the sultry model with a va-vroom personality, Pooja Misrra, bang on, in a chic beige dress and stilettos, and former supermodel and entrepreneur Gautam Kapur in an in-your-face Goan shirt wrapped around beefcake unlimited. �Where are the ice-creams?� yells Pooja. �Yeah, where are they?� seconds Gautam. And just when they�ve uttered those words of gold, a steward regiment steps in with a perspiring jumbo-bag of frozen lick-ables. Their entry coincides with model Aryan Vaid, in an all-black look, blatantly defying summer logic. �Who cares? I�m here for the ice-cream,� he winks. Aren�t we all?

The wait�s getting unbearable, and the ice-creams are fast melting. So we ditch Aseem Merchant and Mamta Raja, our late-lateef guests, and barge straight to a wooden table at the corner of the azure blue pool. An assortment of ice-creams is spread for assault. They�re far too excited. So UpperCrust isn�t getting them to cleanse their pallets with salt-free Melba Toast between flavours.

Aryan�s high on the Chocolate Chips. �Hmm... It�s divine. It�s uh....umm...never mind.� While he�s strongly recommending it to Pooja, there�s Aseem and Mamta speeding from the other end. �Sorry, sorry, we�re late� giggles Mamta. She slips into a blue Versace top and beige pants; Aseem, in trousers and a blood-red shirt that�s left partly unbuttoned for voyeurs of hirsute chests. Within minutes, this couple is on an ice-cream rampage.

While Aryan just hasn�t had enough of his choco-chips, Pooja�s not too gung-ho about it. She�s the only one who�s ultra-high on the Lime-N-Lemon flavour. �It�s wonderfully tangy. This flavour�s for the adventurous sort, not for the boring Choco Chip ones,� she giggles. �In this weather, it�s nice to feast on something that�s �citrusy� on your taste-buds.� Gautam and Aryan don�t quite second her. Nor does Bandana. They�ve moved on to Raspberry.

�Hmm... this Raspberry one�s not too bad either!� burps Bandana. Gautam and Aryan echo her sentiments, greedily wrenching out three-odd scoops into their glass. Aseem and Mamta don�t mind the Raspberry either, but they�ve discovered Roasted Almond in a cone and are having a whale of a time nibbling off the almonds! These incorrigibles have found solace in Gautam, Aryan and Bandana�s favourite Choco-Chips too! Aseem�s cell-phone rings. It�s Viren Shah of Roopam. �Baskin Robbins. I�m freaking out on Baskin Robbins,� he screams, as if on a roller-coaster ride.

Now it�s Pooja and Aryan�s turn to attack a white-colour ice-cream. �Hey, don�t bother with that one,� screams Bandana. �It looks like boring ol �Vanilla.� �It isn�t. It�s sitafal,� Aryan retaliates. Farzana Contractor intervenes. �It isn�t sitafal. It�s tender coconut from Natural�s.� Mystery solved. �I love those coconut peals in my mouth,� smiles Mamta. Don�t we all?

�I think I�m becoming a professional ice-cream taster for life,� quips Pooja. �Sure, but we all need to head to the gym for a two-hour work-out right away,� laughs Gautam. �I�m excused,� remarks Bandana. �I�m pregnant, remember? So I�ll head right home and call for a Pepperoni Pizza! But for now, could I have more of that Roasted Almond puh...lease?!�