THE ice cream man with his push along trolley, an umbrella on the top and the familiar ring of the small bell attached to his trolley.
He was a familiar sight in the 1960s, the 1970s and even in the 1980s.
Children would await the sound of the bell as they would pester their parents or caretakers for the five or 10 cents it took to buy that scoop of whatever flavoured ice cream was on sale.
The ice cream box placed on a block of ice would be soft but that did not matter.
Nowadays, the ice-cream man is a rare sight except at the odd carnivals and festivals.
But that is not the case in Lautoka. The Sugar City has its dedicated ice-cream man and he strolls from one end of the city to the other almost every day selling ice cream and juice.
He is Pundit Narendra Prasad. At 51 years old he walks all through the Sugar City six days a week.
“I am from Saru in Lautoka. I have been doing this for almost five or six years now. This is something I do in addition to my cane farm,” Mr Prasad proudly said.
“I started doing this in the Sugar Festival and my hard work was noticed by some Tappoos staff who offered to give me a cart and supplies which I could square off after selling.
“It sounded like a good idea to me. This was something that I could do to supplement income from the farm.”
Mr Prasad said he did his ice cream man job with pride and saw no shame in doing it.
“This is hard work. Money earned here is through honesty and hard work. This is something which all religions preach. Be honest and work hard.
“One should not anticipate fruits of hard work as they would come to you in due time. This is something I want to tell many young men I have encountered. They say they have gone to school and would not want to do such work.
“But what use is all that education when you do not have work or means of supporting your family. Get up and do something until something better comes along. Nothing will happen if you don’t make a move.”
Mr Prasad said he made $50 a day on average and around $70 on Fridays and Saturdays.
The Fiji Times team met Mr Prasad near the Port of Lautoka. He had finished his round at the Lautoka Wharf and was headed towards the city on a Saturday afternoon.
He revealed that he would shortly finish his ice cream rounds and head back to Saru. And with the little daylight remaining, he would use it to work on his cane farm.
